The Cougarettes leap through the end of their season, displaying their incredible skills and work ethic this year after taking fourth place at sectionals and qualifying for the State competition.

Head dance coach, Natalie Fisher, says her dancers are “…close knit, hardworking, resilient, [and] they’ve really grown to come together a lot this season.”

Fisher explains how the pandemic restrictions have actually made her dancers closer and in turn improved how they work better together in performance.

“They are very resilient because even though we are back to a full season, there has been a lot of craziness because of the pandemic,” Fisher said.

Having a few conferences under their belt, Fisher predicts great things from all the dancers.

“We are working to qualify for top six in sectionals, which will let us go to state,” Fisher said.

And they did just that, placing two above what they had hoped at Sectionals.

Getting good scores is not the only goal for the team. Fisher explains how she wants her dancers to feel while performing on stage.

“One of our ultimate goals is to have them feel confident and strong performing their dance and feel proud about their performance,” Fisher said.

Cougarette Leah Ingram, junior, has been dancing for over a decade now and has never stopped enjoying it.

Ingram describes dance as “…a form of expressing yourself without having to say anything because personally I don’t like talking in front of people and dancing just makes it easier to express your feelings.”

Another Cougarette, Alyssa Carino, also expresses her love for dance as well as the moment she fell in love with the sport.

“It was my first year at Starr, and I was taking a class with this teacher and we were doing an improv activity. She taught me a different way than I’ve known and then after that I realized how free dance can be,” Carino said.

Fisher also weighs in on how she feels about the art of dance.

“Dance combines artistry and athleticism so lots of people would think it’s very pretty and everything looks nice. But it requires a lot of strength in your muscles, a lot of body awareness and control and the technical skills students are asked to do requires a lot of effort and a lot of time,” Fisher said.

The dance team competed in the State competition on Jan. 28 and 29