Bulldog dance team performs well at state competition

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Members of the MFL MarMac Bulldog Dance Team are (front, left to right) Scotlyn Coenen, Lexy Johnson, Avery Ihde; (middle) Rose Grau, Kadence Pape, Kaylee Bachman, Isabella Bogdonovich; (back) Mallory Lang, Savannah Schaller, Hailee Corlett, Kaylee Nuehring and Mikayla Morrissey. (Submitted photos)

Seniors Avery Ihde (left), Lexy Johnson, Rose Grau and Scotlyn Coenen show off the fun, colorful hoops the dance team used for the Hoopla routine.

By Audrey Posten, Times-Register

2020 has been a successful year for the MFL MarMac Bulldog Dance Team. The group earned third place in the Small Hoopla category at this fall’s Iowa State Dance and Drill Team Association State Dance Competition, in addition to a Division 1 rating in Class IV Pom, missing placing by just one point. Junior Kaylee Bachman earned a Division 1 rating in Class II Solos, and the team also received a distinguished academic award for having a combined grade point average over 3.5.

Coach Kelli Saxe is proud of the achievements, especially considering practice time for the team is limited.

“The girls are so involved,” she said, “so we only practice once a week on Sundays.”

It was even more difficult this year, with Saxe recovering from extensive knee surgery. Six months after, she’s just now started walking. 

So some of Saxe’s Prairie du Chien High School alumni taught the team tryout and early-season routines in her place. Although helpful, she admitted the team was still behind in preparing for state. Members assumed they’d take just one routine to competition this year rather than the two, as they’d done in 2019.

That’s when a coach from Davenport Central came to the rescue.

“She wanted to help, so offered to do a hoopla routine for us. She also borrowed us her hoops,” Saxe said. “There was no charge. She said, ‘I know you will pay it forward.’”

The Bulldogs learned the routine, which was set to the song “Land of 1,000 Dances,” from eight-count by eight-count videos. By the end of September/early October, they had it down.

“Then we put together the pom routine in a hurry because they had moved state up three weeks,” Saxe said. “But the girls rallied and put in some extra time on Wednesdays when they were virtual learning.”

As the name implies, hoopla involves each dancer performing with a set of hoops rather than, for example, pom poms.

“They were silver on one side, then bright, metallic pink and black on the other,” explained Saxe. “There were a lot of great visuals, and it was really fun.”

The pom routine was set to the tune Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, and the dancers wore vibrant, blue sailor uniforms. They, surprisingly, didn’t second guess the unique outfits, Saxe joked.

“Last year, I pulled out ‘80s go-go uniforms,” she quipped, “so when I said they were going to be sailor girls this year, they were just like ‘OK.’”

Saxe described the pom routine as upbeat and fun.

“There were a lot of different leaps and jumps and tricks,” she shared.

Due to COVID-19 safety measures, Saxe said MFL MarMac wasn’t able to view other teams in their divisions, which was disappointing.

“Usually everyone is back-to-back,” allowing the team to measure itself against other schools, she added. “But this year, we had no idea how we stacked up.”

Even the judges weren’t on-hand to give real-time critiques. It was all done virtually.

It didn’t stop the team from enjoying the experience, though.

“They’re so fun to work with,” Saxe said. “They really pulled together this year and were more than willing to learn new things.

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