The Valkyries stand poised, ready at a moment’s notice to leap into action as an expectant susurration scurries through the bleachers and the crowd sits in anticipation. The dancers’ relentless dedication during practices toward mastering the choreography makes high-stakes moments like this seem effortless.
Equipped with a team of 21 dancers who specialize in a variety of unique dancing styles, the Valkyries have experienced immense success year after year. During this year’s competition season, they triumphed with their character dance routine, placing first in regionals and second at nationals. In each of their regional competitions thus far, they have gained accolades in multiple categories of dance, including hip-hop, lyrical and character.
Furthermore, juniors Lisa Jing and Angelina Zhou placed third and seventh place respectively in the soloist category at regional competitions.
“It felt amazing,” Jing said. “This was my first year competing in the solo category, and it was rewarding seeing my efforts gain recognition.”
This year, the Valkyries have opted to focus on more hip-hop-style choreography as opposed to their traditional styles of jazz and lyrical.
“A lot of our dancers are more hip-hop based now, so to accommodate for that, we shifted toward more hip-hop based routines,” senior and team captain Dorothy Ko said. “It has more groove and bounce to the steps and is typically more fast-paced compared to styles like lyrical or contemporary.”
Throughout the school year, the Valkyries perform at all school rallies and various school events, such as the annual Indesign fashion show. Their competition schedule is similar to other sports at Lynbrook, as the team often dances against nearby schools such as Cupertino High School, Homestead High School and Lincoln High School. They also compete nationally, allowing them to dance alongside talent all over the United States.
One of the biggest events of the year that the Valkyries prepare for is The Contest of Champions, an annual national competition. This year, the Valkyries placed second for their character dance, a dance that was inspired by Troy Bolton in “High School Musical.”
“The character dance was something that we had never done before, and it was really fun,” Jing said. “We all dressed like Troy Bolton and had basketball jerseys on, attempting to imitate him. It was super crazy and goofy.”
The Valkyries start practicing in the summer before the school year. They have a total of two seasons each year, meaning the team practices and trains year-round. During competition season, they follow their usual practice schedule of Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays with the addition of four-hour practices on Saturday.
“The week before nationals, our practices were around four hours each day,” Ko said. “It definitely gets more intense the closer we get to competitions.”
With the help of coaches, dancers are placed into their teams for the competition season; the coaches weigh the strengths and preferences that each dancer possesses. The coaches also choreograph many of the dances for competitions, such as this season’s character and lyrical dance, while other competition dances such as the hip-hop dance are choreographed by outside dancers who the team reaches out to. When contacting outside choreographers, the coaches first scout who they would like to work with and then take officer input to make the final decision.
Recently, the Valkyries have grown in numbers, allowing them to increase the styles of dances that they can perform in a school year. In the team, there are separate groups such as a separate JV team — a team that was newly formed this season — or other teams that perform lyrical, medium hip-hop, small hip-hop and character dances. These teams often intersect with each other based on the individuals’ abilities, with dancers practicing multiple routines in different styles for competitions and events.
“Everyone on the team has a different skill set, so at the beginning of the year we have to audition for the different dances we want to be in,” junior and officer Caroline Yan said.
With a larger team comes more room for the unexpected, creating unique challenges for the Valkyries to navigate through. For example, there is more room for schedule conflicts or illnesses.
“Unexpected things happen, so being able to change our routines accordingly is something that we’ve improved on a lot this year,” Ko said.
Despite their impressive success throughout this season, the Valkyries still hold many long- and short-term goals for themselves, and they are always looking for ways to improve.
“We hope to sustain the same work ethic throughout the end of the year and continue working hard together,” Ko said. “In the long term, we would like to spend more time working on techniques from a variety of dance styles. I think that would really improve our dancing.”
