Hard work and consistency can pay off, especially after 30 years of dedication to excellence in a program.
That’s the lesson learned by the students, instructors and alumni of the Kentridge Chatelaines Dance Team, which was recently inducted into the Washington State Dance Drill Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
“It’s not just about this current team, it’s about all the previous teams before us that have continued the legacy of the Chatelaines,” said coach Staci Mattson.
The team performed its homecoming show with alumni last Friday, an event held every five years to reunite the alumni with the younger performers.
According to Mattson, the team has consistently performed in the top-three placements of its routines since 2001, and it has placed first in 26 out of its 27 recent routines.
Mattson credits the team’s institutional consistency and tradition as a more important factor than simply having great talent.
Many of the instructors, including Mattson, were Chatelains before they became teachers, and so they had a distinct memory of the group that they passed on to their students.
“I think that’s a huge difference in our team and other teams in the state is there’s huge turnover in high school dance team coaches,” said Mattson, who is in her 13th year of teaching. “Because we’ve had these long standing coaches it’s helped our program grow instead of having to start over.”
Maintaining this tradition has helped established a bond among new members, existing members and alumni. But many alumni say that the team’s cohesion comes from its ethos that is ingrained beyond the practice field.
“When we would go to state we would walk in a single file line just to the hotel. As a captain, every time you’d correct someone they’d say, ‘yes ma’am,’ ” said Karen Knaep, who performed when she was in high school. “It was really important to remember that you always represented the team even when you weren’t at a performance, even when you weren’t at a practice.”
This ethos has helped to consistently draw new and talented dancers to the program, such as leader Michaela Parrott.
“Anywhere you go you have to think, ‘I’m a Chatelaine,'” Parrott said.
Parrott said that the tradition and excellence of the team drew her to the program. She attended Chatelain clinics as a child and continued her interest in middle school. “From there, I went to all the Chatelain events and I was like, ‘that’s what I want to be when I’m older.'”
She feels that the team’s dedication to its principles of excellence have helped her grow as a person and develop skills beyond simply learning how to dance.
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