All-male dance team preparing for upcoming performances

The all-male dance team is making progress toward their first performance this year on Nov. 19 at the high school before then going to the state competition on Dec. 2 at the Wells Fargo Arena. 

“From all-male dance, I’ve learned to go into normal dance with like a much happier mood and different perspective,” assistant dance instructor Kaitlynn Botkin said. “When the boys come and they dance, it’s such a fun environment, and they’re constantly cheering for themselves. We can cheer for ourselves when we make mistakes.”

During the beginning of the season, posters were hung around the school advertising the team. Additionally, several of the members, such as Shae Buskohl, Hogan Fuessel and Azunie Jenkins, joined through others on the team. 

“The reason I joined, not so much this year, but usually we have a lot of cross-country guys on the team,” returning senior Hogan Fuessel said, “so my first year, the cross-country guys told me to join, and I’ve just kinda stuck with it.”

“I’ve been very easily persuaded,” newcomer sophomore Azunie Jenkins said, “PJ, our main advocate, basically just said, ‘Hey, you should join all male,” one time, and I was like, ‘OK,’ and I’ve just been in all-male since.”

In total, the main routine lasts 1 minute and 45 seconds. Local high school and college teams will also perform on the 19th. In the state championships, all the routines and solos will perform. 

“I started my junior year. We didn’t have it my sophomore year, unfortunately, because of covid, so this is my second year, and it has been a good time,” returning senior Lane Wunderlich said.

“I think it has gone pretty well. Obviously, we have less people than we did last year because we had a big senior class last year, but I still enjoy the group that we have, and State will be fun.”

So far, the team has been meeting up every Tuesday evening from 7-8 p.m. at Lincoln Elementary in Cedar Falls.