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Brooke dance team ready to compete nationally

READY TO COMPETE — Family, friends and other supporters gathered at the Brooke High School gym Wednesday to watch the Brooke High School Dance Team perform the routine they will present in their first national competition Saturday at Walt Disney World. Headed by coach Shelby Mazzone, the team includes seniors Taylor Pannett, Maria Lombardi and Adreanne Langley; juniors Kacie Harvath, Kallie Delatore, Peyton Bates, Hunter McGaughey and Olyvia George; sophomore Kaitlynne Seminsky and freshman Carley DiGiacinto. -- Warren Scott

WELLSBURG — Because dance isn’t a West Virginia-sanctioned sport, the Brooke High School dance team has gone to Ohio and Pennsylvania to demonstrate their skills in regional competitions.

So, when the team earned the chance to compete in the Universal Dance Association’s National Dance Team Championship at Walt Disney World, its members jumped at the chance to participate, said Shelby Mazzone, the group’s coach of four years.

The team will be among 80 competing in their division at the event Saturday afternoon after placing third at a competition held as part of the UDA Dance Camp held last summer at Slippery Rock (Pa.) University.

Its members are seniors Taylor Pannett, Maria Lombardi and Adreanne Langley; juniors Kacie Harvath, Kallie Delatore, Peyton Bates, Hunter McGaughey and Olyvia George; sophomore Kaitlynne Seminsky and freshman Carley DiGiacinto.

The opportunity to compete at the national event depended on the team’s ability to raise funds needed for airfare, lodging and related expenses.

Mazzone said with the help of the girls’ parents and the support of the community, the team generated the needed money through a quarter auction, several car washes, a few celebrity server nights and other fundraisers.

She said she was happy to learn Pennsylvania teams that placed first and second at the camp also will be participating in the competition, which is expected to draw hundreds of dance teams from throughout the U.S.

Mazzone said the contest’s judges will rate them according to various criteria, with technique and synchronization key among them.

The team has been busy practicing the jazz style dance routine they will perform in Orlando, Fla.

While the group’s winning routine at Slippery Rock was two minutes long, their routine at Disney will be eight minutes.

Mazzone brought in choreographer Bria Cross, a former member of the West Virginia University dance team, to plan the routine. Cross submitted about a dozen possible songs, from which the team’s senior members chose Canadian singer Esthero’s up-tempo “Ready or Not.”

Mazzone said she was confident in the girls’ ability to learn the routine because they have presented a different routine during the half-time of the school’s football games each week.

The team also has performed occasionally at other athletic events and appeared regularly in area parades.

Mazzone said flips and lifts have been added to the routines this year, making them more athletic in nature and requiring strength as well as grace of the teammates.

She said in addition to competing in a national event for the first time, the team is looking forward to seeing Walt Disney World.

Team members Taylor Pannett and Maria Lombardi were at the Magic Kingdom in December after being invited to appear with hundreds of other high school dance team members and cheerleaders in the second-annual Varsity Spirit Spectacular Christmas Parade.

But it will be the first visit for five members as well as the first plane trip for two.

Mazzone said parent Paul Lombardi has planned an itinerary for the group so they can see and do as much as possible when not competing.

(Scott can be contacted at wscott@heraldstaronline.com.)

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