Growing by Leaps and Bounds

Maclay’s New Dance Team The Valkyries

Photo by Adia Seckel

A team. A family. An outlet for expression. The Valkyries are Maclay’s varsity dance team of both middle and upper schoolers. The team is a new addition to Maclay’s fine arts program and sports department. The team performs at upper school football games most of the time, but sometimes they can be seen performing at pep rallies and their own personal shows. One of the shows the Maclay community can look forward to is their upcoming holiday show on Dec. 13. Adia Seckel, the Valkyries’ coach, is devoted to building Maclay’s dance program from the ground up. A varsity dance team has many reasons to be a great addition to the school; however, building this team proves to be complicated as setbacks occur.

Since the Valkyries are a varsity sports team, eighth graders move up to the upper school level, which tends to cause some schedule difficulties. The middle school and upper school rotations line up almost perfectly, but the timing of the schedules are still slightly different. The overlap is especially confusing on A2 days, because middle and upper schoolers have lunch at different times.

“That team meets at A4, so I have my middle schoolers coming in around 11:20, and I have my high schoolers coming in at 11:30,” Seckel said. “Because it’s technically a high school class, my middle schoolers don’t leave at 12:30 to eat lunch. They go with the high schoolers. [This] then messes up their PLT (personal learning time).”

While the new schedule causes difficulties, combining grade levels has its advantages for practice. This allows the team to be arranged by level rather than age, taking full advantage of every dancer’s skills. It also helps to ensure that eighth graders who start the team in middle school will continue through high school.

“I’m very thankful that they are allowing my eighth graders to be a part of this,” Seckel said. “It helps with the blending from middle school into upper school just like with any varsity team.”

The dance team acts as a class, so it takes an entire period out of a student’s day. This can be challenging to schedule around. Additionally, all dancers have to choose between the dance team and another class they may be interested in, which could cause difficulty for students academically.

“It is the only class at that time, so I have to make sure I’m able to do that class,” team captain Alexandra Holland said. “[If I had a free class period], I would do a study hall since I also dance outside of school.”

Having dance team practice during a class period provides team members extracurricular freedom after school. Moreover, practicing during a school period allows the dancers to be physically active, which is important for a student’s brain and body.

“It’s also a good way to be active during the day,” Holland said. “With all our hard classes, being able to just move helps because I'm not just stuck in a classroom all day.”

The dance team is a major commitment, and Seckel has high expectations for her dancers. Being on the Valkyries requires stamina, muscle and mental capacity to retain immense amounts of choreography from many different styles of dance.

“We do two to three dances per week, and we bounce between different dances, different genres,” Seckel said. “A lot of these girls also play other sports so the toll on their bodies is something that I do take into account. There’s a lot going on. I wouldn’t say I’m hard on them, but I do have a high level of expectation on these kids.”

While expectations are high, the team is more than willing to accept the challenge. As dedicated dancers, they seek to learn all they can about dance and enhance their abilities. They work hard to grow with the program and improve their skills.

“I personally [want to] become better than I [was] at the beginning of the year and to just keep improving [and] making sure I’m taking corrections,” Holland said.

While building a program is challenging, coach Seckel and the Valkyries are doing an amazing job. The team’s determination and passion for dance allow for a strong team that will continue to grow in years to come.

“I believe that if we raise the standards for everybody at Maclay then [the students] will all rise to the occasion, and I’m kind of proving my theory right,” Seckel said. “Because [the dancers] want it, they also put in the work and the effort, and in my humble opinion, they look amazing.”