On Feb. 4, Madison’s varsity dance team placed 18th in the nation at the Universal Dance Association National Dance Team Championship (NDTC) held in Orlando, Fla. This was the first time Madison’s dancers qualified for the final round of the competition in school history.

“Not only was the team competing against other local teams, but they were also competing against 500 other teams in the nation,” Dance Team Manager KC Buckley (’19) said.

The team had a primary intention for this competition season.

“Our goal for this competition and every other is to enter the floor with no fear and leave the floor with no regret,” Head Coach Suzanne Mansfield said.

Though this is not a feat that comes without difficulty.

“We did more workouts in the practices leading up to nationals, and we had some assigned workouts to do at home that we had to [record] and post to our Facebook group,” Dancer Lauren Simon (’18) said. “I felt more prepared going to nationals knowing that my body would be able to handle multiple long days in a row.”

“We graduated nine very talented seniors in 2017 and the ‘word on the street’ was that [Madison’s dance team] wouldn’t be that good this year,” Mansfield said. “Since no Madison team made it to NDTC finals in the past, we set our sights on [working towards] that.”

“We were there to build a legacy, and we wanted it more than ever,” co-captain Samantha Lane (’18) said.

Though seeing the talent of Madison’s dance team earlier this year, many were not taken aback by its performance at nationals.

““I was not surprised they would do as well as they did,” Activities Director, John Kenny said.

“It feels incredible to make history at Madison in my freshman year,” dancer Eva Ponos (’21) said.

The dance team looks forward to another successful season and will be holding tryouts in May.