OTHELLO — A state-winning dance routine takes commitment and discipline, a team that’s ready for 6 a.m. practices - no, not 6 a.m. for the Othello High School dance team.

“Five a.m.,” five members of the team said in unison.

There was a payoff for all that work at the biggest meet of the season - the Huskies successfully defended their state 2A hip-hop title and finished third in the 2A pom category.

Lori Garza said being defending state champions provided some extra motivation.

“Holding the title from last year made us really push that much harder to keep it,” Garza said.

Hip-hop is a little different from the other dance disciplines that make up state competition.

“Hip hop is kind of a street style dance where you get to dress more comfortably, not very tight-fitted,” said Liz Vazquez. “More loose. You get to have more body movements.”

But like all dance disciplines the judges are looking for teams that perform in unison, and that, the dancers said, takes some practice.

“With hip-hop movements, each individual has their own style of doing it,” said Sara Hernandez. “So having to find one common style of each of us to follow was a main deal and dilemma we had throughout each practice.”

“In the beginning of the year, we’re learning to (blend styles). It took a lot of work to get it where it was at state,” said Annalee Vasquez.

A hip-hop routine has a theme, and the 2023 theme for the OHS dance team was “Welcome to Puerto Rico.” The coaches opted for a routine that emphasized music of Latin and Spanish origin.

“It made our routine way different because this year we had more, cuter, sassier movements instead of being aggressive throughout the whole routine,” Sara Hernandez said. “And it showed more duality and technical skills.

“It was more a variety in music and movement,” Hernandez added. “We started off with a very sassy walk, rather than having the whole routine be aggressive faces and mean looks. We wanted to look more cute and memorable.”

Pom competition emphasizes energy.

“It’s very fast-paced, fast music, sharp movements,” Garza said. “We usually do more vocals in pom, which means that we yell a certain word throughout parts of our routine to keep up throughout it.”

Both are tough tests, for different reasons, but the key to success in both is presentation, the team said.

“One thing we kept hearing was that we have to sell it,” Hernandez said. “We had to play the character of the dance.”

“Every single part of it has to be executed correctly,” Garza said.

“We have to make it look easy when we know it’s not,” Vasquez said.

Amarie Guzman said she thought hip-hop was the more appealing of the two.

“Our team, we got into hip hop more, when we actually performed it at competitions and stuff. I feel like the energy was there more in hip hop,” Garza said.

“It was different from what other teams were doing,” Vazquez said. “Other teams had the hard-hitting aggressive (routine) throughout and ours was the Spanish music - it was all really different. I think we really wanted to showcase that as well, and show that different can win.”

The state tournament is the biggest stage of the year, the biggest test, and the team members said they were confident about their chances as state competition approached.

“I think Othello has a very, very good support system, and every single year we just always bring it during competition, and we just had that feeling we would do very well with both of our routines,” Garza said.

As the Huskies came off the floor after the hip hop routine they were pretty sure they had put on a good performance, they said. In fact it was a pretty emotional moment.

Vasquez said she shed a few tears, knowing it was the last performance for the 2023 dance team, and because she’s a senior, her last one ever.

“Personally, I teared up a little after (the routine) because I knew that was what I worked for the whole season,” Hernandez said. “Knowing that I put my best out there one last time - that was probably the most perfect I’ve done it. Knowing that state is where I finished it off strong was amazing.”

Cheryl Schweizer may be reached at [email protected]. Download the Columbia Basin Herald app – available for iOS and Android devices.