On Jan. 24, the BVH basketball team faced off against Southwest High School (SHS) after overcoming complications with a broken hoop on the BVH court. This meant that BVH’s dance team, Get to the Pointe (GTP) would still be able to support the Barons alongside elementary and middle schoolers to put on a halftime show. Given the young age of the performers, organization was a harder task than usual. Sophomore and GTP Wardrobe Officer Soleil Ekstein recalls the lovable chaos of the process.
“The kids’ attention spans are a little rough. You have to find creative ways around how to be able to teach them and help them understand the choreography,” Ekstein said. “I love to teach little kids because their spirits are always high. They are always willing, and they are never not excited to learn how to dance. They are bonkers–a lot of them were on the floor and sliding [around]–but fun to teach.”
The cross-aged team seen at the halftime show originated from a dance camp put on by GTP before winter break. Although starting off casual, the camp led to the idea of performing.
“This started off as a fundraiser we did two months ago. We realized that bringing in younger kids would help us as a dance team and help us build bonds with the younger kids who would eventually come to BVH,” Ekstein said.
This eventually turned into something bigger, leading to the halftime performance. Some aspects of the camp chaos translated into the show, but ultimately it ended up being quite endearing. Ekstein describes her experience leading up to and during the halftime performance.
“During the performance we were all stressed. We were all sitting on the sidelines, hoping these kids would do what they were supposed to do. [Since they] are kids, they were not going to remember everything, but because of that some of them got to improvise,” Ekstein said. “We had this one girl who would just take front and center, doing her own thing. It was hilarious and we had a lot of fun.”
Beyond the excitement for the younger dancers, the experience left a lasting impression on members of GTP. Senior and GTP Co-Captain Kaitlin Bertrand remembers the warm feelings she experienced while dancing and seeing the younger dancers enjoy themselves around her.
“During the performance it was really heartwarming to see all the little kids having a good time. Throughout my years of highschool I have never seen anything like this done before and it was really nice to see all of that come together–the collaboration between all the different levels and ages,” Bertrand said, “Not only were we able to support the basketball team by performing, but it was really awesome to show how we can impact our community by bringing in a bunch of different people of all levels and ages and just have fun dancing.”
As Bertrand stated, this type of performance has been relatively uncommon in GTP history. Sophomore and JV Basketball small forward Joey Boniske explains the pleasant surprise toward the performance, given the lack of halftime shows during past home games.
“All the different ages showed how everyone could work together to make a good performance. It was different than how [basketball halftimes] usually are, where nothing [happens]. It was really cool seeing the little kids out there performing, [which is] something uncommon for basketball games,” Boniske said.
The performance made its mark because of its uniqueness to the basketball season. Boniske explains the appreciation he and the basketball team had regarding the support given by GTP and the guest dancers.
“It was very cool that GTP came to support the basketball team. It is really meaningful [to show] support and [it] does not go unnoticed within our team and overall community,” Boniske said.
GTP performances like this have been far and in between, but Ekstein voiced the likelihood of the team making a return to sports–basketball and beyond–with the young dancers in the years to come.
“This was a great opportunity to be able to perform at a basketball game and include little kids, so GTP will for sure do this kind of thing again. It gives us an outlet to be able to dance freely. We are not in a zone where we have to be on top of everything,” Ekstein said, “We have to stoop to the little kids’ level which is honestly fun and I love doing it.”
