With the final kick in the air, senior Morgan Seal strikes a blinding smile in her final pose to the entire audience. The audience erupts in applause and shouts praises to the Legacies dancers. The sense of satisfaction and pride in their performance sweeps through Seal as she finishes through. 

The Legacies competed at the Crowd Pleasers Dance state competition this past weekend. They performed multiple ensembles and special pieces with all of their dancers. 

“We performed four team routines that all of us performed and then we had officer groups,” senior Ella Reeves said. “So, the dance officers did three performances and our social officers did one.” 

During their preparation for state, the Legacies spent more time on perfecting specific details and consistently putting in the effort to perform well at state. 

“I think our dances are a lot more rigorous than they have been in past years,” senior Madi Howard said. “We really pushed on performance aspects, like facials along with our technique, and I’m just really proud about the work we did.”

During their experience at state, they were able to experience watching other teams perform their routines and form close relationships with the other teams in the process.  

“State was super cool because there were so many amazing teams and they all had such crazy and fun facial expressions,” Seal said. “It was just really great to see other large teams at such a high competition level. We also had an ice cream social with the Johnson Rosettes and it was really fun to get to know them and meet another team that was just like us. ”

The Legacies have never been to state before and were fortunate to attend for the first time this year. Their routines they have prepared this year are much more complex and require more time to improve due to preparation for state. 

“We’ve always been to more local contests, but we’ve never been to a state level competition,” Reeves said. “So, that was definitely a big jump for us. It was really interesting just jumping into a bigger pool of dancers with talents that are different and a lot higher at a state competition.” 

In the upcoming months, the Legacies are preparing for the next part of their year and one of their biggest shows: the spring show. 

“We have a theme with our spring show, and it’s the next level,” Howard said. “All of our dances revolve around that theme with the lighting, the costumes, and the music. So, for the next month or two, we’re going to be preparing for that and our show will be at the end of April.”

Of this year, the Legacies mention what they are looking forward to working on for the rest of the year and thoughts about their spring show.

“I’m super excited for Vanguard because I feel like that’s when we really get to show the community and our biggest supporters of what we do and give love back to the people,” Seal said. “I feel like Vanguard is my favorite because it is just you just get to perform for the people you love but without the judges.”

As this is their last year on the Legacies team, the seniors reminisce over this past year as they look forward to the future.

“We’ve come so far since we learned the dances to now with performance and all the preparation,” Howard said. “So, it was a rewarding experience with that last competition by performing those dances for the last time.”