Aliso Niguel’s Dance Appreciation team has been dominating their season so far, winning first place at both Glendale High School on Feb. 25 and Arlington High School on March 11.
This impeccable dance team arrived in the city of Los Angeles at Glendale High School, with a great amount of energy, hungry to win. In this large competition, Aliso was faced with many incredible teams from other schools in the LA area.
Both coaches of the team, Jasmine Orcaz and David Lim, along with other talented choreographers and staff members prepared these athletes with excellent dances.
For Avah Parsi (10), her favorite moment was “getting first place for small co-ed. We have been working very hard and it was amazing to get first especially at such a difficult competition.”
For this competition, a small co-ed group consisting of intricate and dedicated dancers performed a one of a kind performance. The judges were blown away by these dancers’ sharp movements and technique. With this jaw-dropping dance, Aliso’s DA rightfully deserved first place.
Medium group is in the medium female category, having a more feminine energy to the number. Again, DA pulls out another strong dance taking home the sixth place trophy.
Lastly, they competed with a large co-ed group that had a fun and groovy dance. All of these dancers tried their very best and performed to the best of their abilities, earning them fifth place in their category.
Adding on to the success of DA, the team recently had another competition at Arlington High School in Riverside where all three divisions won first place.
The large co-ed’s set incorporated songs like “After Last Night” by Bruno Mars and “Before I Let Go” by Beyonce. These amazing songs and skillful dancers out-performed the other competition which led them to receive first place.
Going along with the feminine theme of the medium group, their set included songs from Doja Cat. With exceeding expectations and dominating their category, they once again continued their win streak to bring home yet another first place trophy.
The small co-ed group came out powerfully with hard hitting movements and a great amount of passion. Their dance had songs such as “I Love” by Joyner Lucas, “Hot Girl” by Charli XCX and “Move” by Lecrae. Aliso was surrounded with tough opponents and other talented dancers, but they persevered and proudly received a first place award.
With a busy competition season, the DA team practices for many hours rigorously choreographing and making sure everyone is on the same page.
Coach Jasmine Orcaz says, “This team is fiery and connected with one another. They all have a hunger to succeed and do a great job at supporting and encouraging each other along the way.”
She strongly believes that because of this, her team has been successful in the long run. She is so incredibly proud of her dancers and admires their spirit and strength.
She remarks, “My favorite memory this season is watching everyone’s faces light up when they realized we had placed first place in all of our divisions. The trophies are never the main focus but to see them feel so validated and proud of their hard work is a satisfying thing as a coach.”
The Dance Appreciation team deserves much recognition and praise for their amazing work. They have accomplished great things and will continue to achieve greatness in the near future.
