Draped in “TP” dance gear and a “feel of excitement,” the school’s varsity hip-hop and contemporary dance teams won Grand Champion at a West Coast Elite Competition on Jan. 31, which Temescal Canyon High School hosted for the first time in four years. 

Of the 15 schools in attendance, the team with the highest combined score from their four top-scoring dances received the award. The school’s team placed first in extra-small contemporary, small hip-hop, medium hip-hop and large hip-hop. 

In addition, the team competed in small jazz, extra-small lyrical, small lyrical, medium lyrical and large contemporary.

Over the process of learning and practicing the dances, the team trained stamina, consistency and performance quality during their run-throughs and cleaning. The contemporary team practices on Tuesdays and the hip-hop teams practice on Wednesdays and Fridays, which allows them to “be on their A-game,” according to varsity hip-hop captain Caitlyn Van Hoose (12). A typical practice for the team begins with a warm-up and then cleaning or synchronizing movements. They go through each piece to ensure accuracy and detail.

With rehearsal comes “fatigue and tiredness,” according to Ella Kaplan (12), varsity hip-hop and contemporary captain. 

“Sometimes, it feels like the dance looks the same, even though we’ve improved a lot,” Kaplan said. “You just can’t always tell while you’re doing it.”

As the team travelled together on the bus, they listened to music and marked choreography in their seats.

“We keep going until it’s pretty much perfect, and then at the end we run the entire piece together,” Van Hoose said.

To prepare before each dance, the team rehearses for about an hour and a half.

“We had really good energy during those rehearsals at this competition, and I think that made a big difference,” Van Hoose said.

Kaplan described the team as “connected.”

“We have really good team morale all day [as] we’re practicing because we’re all in one spot,” Kaplan said. “We go on the bus together and we come home together.”

Team morale is a vital part of placing at competitions, which Van Hoose described as “great reinforcement for the team’s] hard work.”

The team “usually scores well in hip-hop,” according to Van Hoose, but this year, the team felt like they “outperformed themselves.”

Van Hoose described the moment they won.

“[At the awards ceremony], we had already won all the hip hop categories, so we were really happy,” Van Hoose said. “When they started announcing Grand Champions, we didn’t think it would be us because we hadn’t won in a long time.”

The closest the team got in the past four years was second runner-up.

“I started crying,” Van Hoose said. “It was such a great moment, probably the peak of the year so far.”

Dean Smith (12), a second-year dancer on the varsity team, describes the emotions of winning.

“It means a lot because I could see how much it meant to my teammates who’ve been on the team longer,” Smith said. “That made the award such a true team accomplishment.”

Smith was not performing for himself, but for the “teammates who’ve been there for four years.” For him, winning “truly reinforced the ‘TP Do Work’ mentality.” The team often recites this chant at the beginning or end of their performances.

With four years of experience on the team, Van Hoose feels “fulfilled.”

“As seniors and captains, this accomplishment means that everything we’ve been doing up to this point has been worth it,” Van Hoose said. “We’ve put in a lot of hard work, and while it’s always fun, it can also be really tiring.”

One of Smith’s sources of motivation is his coaches and senior dancers, who gave him a “goal to work towards and a group to look up to.”

Ysa Penarejo, junior varsity hip-hop head coach and varsity hip-hop assistant coach, and Francis Florendo, varsity hip-hop head coach and junior varsity hip-hop assistant coach, play a bigger role than dance, trying to teach the dancers “how to be better people.”

“We give them life lessons that are applicable in dance and … throughout life, [focusing] on guiding them to be the best version of themselves,” Florendo said. “Aside from that, we teach them fundamentals of dance and push boundaries in their movement quality.”

With nationals five weeks away in Long Beach from March 5 to 7, the win gives the team hope. 

“For the first time in our high school career, we’ve been able to win a competition like this, which we hadn’t done before,” Van Hoose said. “It also means a lot to see our scores continuously increase throughout the season. It shows that we’re constantly getting better and that our hard work is paying off.”

To Florendo, the Grand Champion win was “truly icing on the cake,” as the team guided the day with “love and encouraging energy.”

“Although our cups were full, adding this truly was spectacular, and I am immensely proud of all the hard work [the team] put in leading up to that point,” Florendo said. “[The dance team] really ‘did work’ this past weekend.”

According to Florendo, it  was a “very long day” that was “filled [with] laughter, hard work and snacks.” The team competed from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.

“Each performance we had was supported by all our team members and we carried our TP spirit throughout the day, making it contagiously positive,” Florendo said. “Personally, seeing the joy in all our kids, from bonding between performances, supporting other teammates’ dances and also seeing them hit the stage in their best version, truly made this competition so memorable.”