by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
Hoping for another try at state honors, the Sartell Sabre Dance Team will give the public a preview of its seasonal razzle-dazzle when it hosts the annual invitational dance shows at 2 and 6 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 15 at Sartell High School.
The extravaganza is the team’s biggest annual fundraiser.
Tickets may be purchased at the door. Concessions, T-shirts and flowers will be available for purchase.
Last year, the Sabres won second in High Kick and third in Jazz Dance categories, the latest of many awards earned by the team during its jazzy, high-kicking history.
The Nov. 15 show will feature the varsity dance teams from four area high schools: the Apollo Astronettes, the Cathedral Crusaderettes, the Rocori Rockettes and the Tech Tigerettes. There will also be guest dancers from the University of Minnesota, Rochester, Dance Team, and local teams from Just for Kix, Ms. Melinda’s, Northcrest and the St. Cloud School of Dance and Gymnastics.
Besides performing the debut of this year’s jazz and high-kick numbers, the Sartell Dance Team will also treat the audience to a perennial favorite, the guy-girl dance performance.
The Sartell Sabre dancers are coached by Kelsey Keller, Kelly McCarney and Molly Carey. The two captains are Miranda Garman and Katlyn Ramseth.
“It will be so much fun to see what the other high schools will be doing at the show,” said Coach McCarney, noting it will be the debut performance in high-kick and jazz category for all of them. It will, she said, give a chance for all the teams to size up the competition since the teams will all be competing during the coming dance season.
“There will be new teams, new songs, new choreography,” McCarney said.
There are 33 girls on the Sabre Dance Team, ninth-graders through 12th-graders.
“Our jazz song this year is a dance to the music of the song Smooth Criminal,” she noted. “It’s our take on a Michael Jackson song.”
Dawn Scott-Yackley, Sabre Dance Team publicity coordinator, is a parent whose daughter, Hannah, a junior, is one of the dancers.
“It’s going to be a fantastic show,” she said. “It’s very entertaining, it attracts all ages and it’s an all-around fun day.”
The Sabre Dance Team practices one of its numbers that it will present when Sartell hosts the annual all-team dance show Nov. 15 at Sartell High School.
