Sierra Vista High School’s dance and step team, Synergy, enters a new year full of opportunity. As the team prepares for the upcoming year, Synergy continues to push itself to make sure each goal and opportunity it hopes to achieve becomes possible.
Synergy’s new coach, Elesia Archer shares her plans for the new year, “I am aware that the team has always been a student-run team, and there are many aspects that I would like to keep the same for them, such as allowing them to set the choreography and keeping some of their team traditions. I want to be a positive addition to the team. A coach should lift a team up and encourage them to keep pushing forward.” Archer hopes to make dance a positive experience for Synergy, just as she had while in high school, Archer further explains, “I have spent my entire life dancing. As a freshman in high school, I was going through many serious life challenges and dance is what kept my head above water. My love for dance turned into a lifelong career and I feel very blessed and fortunate for that! I coach because I hope to pass the passion along to other students and to show them how powerful teamwork can be.”
Jacqueline Grote (11), one of three captains of Synergy at Sierra Vista High School, enters her third year dancing. Grote looks forward to the upcoming season exclaiming, “I’m incredibly excited about the upcoming competitions and performances. Our team has so much potential, and I believe this year will be fantastic to grow our name and establish ourselves as Synergy.” Archer shares her plans for future performances disclosing, “I am looking forward to taking my students to UNLV dance day. They have never had an opportunity to participate in this and it is such an amazing opportunity.” Along with Archer, the dancers of Synergy look forward to UNLV dance days, Grote further explains, “I’m particularly excited about UNLV Dance Day, as it’s a unique opportunity for us to showcase our hard work through the season.” Along with this, Synergy looks forward to many other opportunities. Mckenzie Gidge (10), a second-year synergy member shares, “I am looking forward to performing at the homecoming assembly and the football halftime performance, we’re definitely focusing on perfecting those routines right now.” Along with these, the team looks forward to their “annual participation in WCE Competition.”
With so many opportunities quickly approaching the team works hard to make sure their goals are met by each deadline. Archer shares, “I feel confident that they will be ready for our homecoming performances and I hope that the audience will see a change in the team from our past performances.” Additionally, Archer explains what the team works towards in the meantime explaining, “We will be working to improve transitions. The team has fantastic choreography, but needs to improve on staging, transitions, and eye-catching stunts.” This dedication sets Synergy apart from other teams along with many other factors, Grote explains, “What sets our team apart is that we’re student-led, and we create our own choreography (rather than paying and bringing outside choreographers in). This allows dancers to express themselves and be featured in dances they’ve created, fostering development and diversity in our performances.” Gidge adds on, “We are a hip hop and step team, step is not seen as much in schools and is a unique factor of our team.”
With a new coach and more opportunities than ever, Synergy works towards its goals and aspirations. As the year progresses, the team moves forward to new opportunities and performances all while they continue to learn and grow, improving along the way.
