Sophomore Flora Peruzzo has been competitively dancing since freshman year. “I saw an announcement on Schoology and I just decided to join,” she said. 

At first, joining the dance team was a little hard for Peruzzo as she had to “catch up” due to the little previous experience she had with dance, but once she did it became fun. 

“It was kind of hard joining, but everyone was so welcoming,” she said. 

Peruzzo’s favorite types of dance are contemporary and jazz. “[Jazz is] really fun [and] it’s kind of uplifting,” she said. She enjoys contemporary dance because of the movements that it involves. 

On Saturday, Feb. 19 the dance team participated in a competition. Peruzzo is an alternate for the varsity dance team, but she enjoys going to the competitions and loves to cheer the team on. At the competitions, the dance team usually practices, watches other teams perform, and performs themselves. 

This will be Peruzzo’s second year being part of the state competition the dance team competes in. Last year, the team was only able to send in a video of their performance, which Peruzzo said was difficult. They didn’t get to have “the whole competition aspect,” she said. 

Performing in front of people is something Peruzzo finds to be “nerve-wracking, but I feel like it’s rewarding,” she said. 

Before her dance meets, Peruzzo likes to go to Starbucks. She enjoys the seasonal flavors, with her current pre-dance drink being an espresso Frappuccino. She also has gotten in the habit of packing her bag the night before the competitions. 

As well as performing at competitions, Peruzzo also participated in drill down. “[It’s] kind of like army commands,” she said. “It’s like different movements you’re supposed to do and follow along.” The two different categories of drill are novice and advanced. 

Peruzzo looks up to the dance team captains, and said that they are “invigorated dancers and all very nice people.” 

In addition to the various dance competitions the dance team attends, they also perform at school assemblies. For assemblies, Peruzzo says that they have a unique routine each time they perform. “I think it’s more stressful at the assemblies because it’s in front of other students,” she said. 

Peruzzo plans on continuing to dance for the rest of high school. She does not plan on dancing competitively throughout college, but she does want to take some classes to keep up with dance.