Yelm High School jazzline assistant coach Melanie Anderson described the 2023-24 season as a “different type of season” than previous years. She said the year was drama-free and smooth, and because of that, the dancers qualified for the state championships for the third year in a row.
This time around in Yakima at the Yakima SunDome, March 23, the Tornado dancers placed 14th in the hip-hop category out of 17 teams, but they finished with their highest score of the year with a 238.1.
“It’s been a different type of season, one that we’ve never experienced before. They have put in so much work into this last month and a half,” said Anderson, who has spent four years as an assistant. “They have really put in the time to make themselves better, and I am so proud of them. Everything worked out perfectly at state.”
Despite the team placing 14th, Anderson and the staff were proud of how the team performed after waiting and watching other schools perform for more than five hours before it was their turn. She added that the two-minute routine, which was robot themed, could not have been performed better.
“This was probably the best score they could have gotten with what the routine was. The judges seemed to like different styles of hip hop, and ours was just more of a precision type,” she said. “There was no other team that had that type of hip hop. Our head coach Cherrylee Rolfe choreographed it, and she did an outstanding job this year.”
Junior captain Taylor Curzon was proud of how far the team has come compared to last season, even though the dancers scored a program-record 254 points in last year’s state competition.
“We’ve been building off of that for this year, and it’s really shown how much energy that the entire dance team is putting in,” she said. “Our team chemistry has grown a lot. We’ve all definitely gotten closer as a varsity team as a whole.”
Senior captain Momoka Larson, who spent all four years of high school on the jazzline team, was excited to finish her career at state for the third time. The team likely would have qualified for state in 2020 but the competition was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I thought I would be a little more sad, but I’m just really proud of what we did this season. I wasn’t really too concerned about if we were going to score high or place,” Larson said. “I just really wanted to have fun with the team and be proud of what we’ve put into this season.”
The jazzline team is becoming better recognized in the community, with appearances at athletic events and competitions around the region. Anderson said the team is working on creating a middle school dance team and continuing to raise awareness to the program.
“A lot of people don’t even know about it until they get into high school and they see it. It’s a missed opportunity for them to do something that they might love,” she said. “Having a middle school team will really get the name out there. But every year, this team seems to get better and better.”
Anderson said the team will begin tryouts for next year’s team at the end of May.
