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Family Owned & Independent Media Company - Est 2016 - Haslett, MI
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Family Owned & Independent Media Company - Est 2016 - Haslett, MI
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By Lily Dudasik
In St. Johns high school, the Redwings dance team brought Disneyland to us with a Disney themed tea party. It had everything from photo booths with favorite princesses like Ariel and Cinderella, to a cafeteria filled with tea cups, coloring sheets, and a personal server! The St. Johns varsity and middle school dance teams really transformed and became royalty for these young children.
The photo booths were placed before the entrance to the cafeteria, with the dancers greeting the little princesses and getting photos. Each set had its own detailed background and props, the Moana booth even had a little HeiHei! Each dancer had their own vision for their booth and each one was executed amazingly.
Michelle Lindquist, the Dance team coach, perfectly put it, “Well it does give the opportunity for a lot of little girls who never would be able to afford to go to Disney, to kind of have the next best thing nearby.” Everywhere one looked they could see the smiles of little girls as they spotted their favorite princess at the next booth, waiting for them to arrive. Between the props, the costumes, and the warm smiles of the dancers to the little princesses, it truly felt as if Disney had come to St. Johns.
Lindquist stated that the support from the community and the dance teams were unmatched. “Many of the servers are Middle school dancers. We had about fifty girls involved in our middle school dance team this year and so a lot of them are Middle school dancers, some of the girls that are going to be doing the dances today are Middle school dancers as well. Between our high school varsity team and our middle school teams, we have quite a big pool of girls to pull from. I also wanted to mention our St. John's theater department, we get a lot of help from them, in terms of servers, princes, and some of the singers, there’s a lot of people involved in the theater department too.”
Each table was assigned their own dance member, all who were dressed like professional butlers, who helped them with whatever the guests needed. The dancers lined the halls to the entrance of the cafeteria after the young royalty were cordially invited into the gates, it truly looked as if they were about to start singing “Be Our Guest” from Beauty and the Beast!
The town really came out to not only support the Dance team, but to also support the 10th annual Princess Tea party. “It makes me feel great, it feels really good to know that we’re making a very special day for a lot of little girls in the town.” Lindquist said.
It truly became a special day for those girls to meet their favorite princess and to be a part of something incredibly unique.
Photo Credit: Lily Dudasik/The Lansing Herald
Coming together as a team can lead you down many roads. It can be difficult, it can be challenging but it can also be rewarding. It can also lead to the State Championship and the athletes of the Haslett United gymnastics team (Haslett, Williamston, Bath & St. Johns) have achieved just that.
“I am so proud of our girls for our performance this season. It wouldn’t have been the same without each and every one of these girls and their dedication to this team. It makes me astonished that we have brought our program to states for the first time in years.” Kala Genske, Williamston junior and a Haslett United Gymnastics team captain commented. “This team makes my love for the sport grow so much more each and every day. Regardless of our outcome at states we have already accomplished so much as a team. Thank you to everyone who has ever supported our program and we hope to see you in our stands next season!”
Constantly improving is what separates teams who do achieve their goals from those who don’t. Improvement requires focus and diligence, dedication and commitment. Haslett United has improved their scores throughout the season and it all happened because of their focus on execution.
When asked about their team’s progression through the season Haslett United coaches Marcie Durso & Shera Emmons talked about how they have 14 gymnasts on this team with all different levels of skills.
“They have continued to work hard to gain momentum by not only fine tuning their current skills, but worked very hard to upgrade to harder skills in their routines. Before Regional Competition, we totaled our top four average scores in each event for the entire season and set a goal to beat that. They did just that in each and every event!”
Training and focus is only part of Haslett United’s success story this year. Another contributing factor is the team environment and general atmosphere that Durso & Emmons work hard to foster. It may be the single biggest factor in their success overall.
“I think our advantage is that we have lots of consistency in our skills and routines and we work very hard and put lots of hours in every week to make us the best we can be. My teammates and coaches I came from a very tough and hard coaching gymnastics gym and coming onto high school gymnastics it was so fun.” St. Johns sophomore Krissy Howard commented. “All my teammates are very supportive and know how to work hard but still have fun, my coaches Marcie and Shera also make things so enjoyable. They are very flexible and understand that this is a hard sport especially on our body’s and don’t push me to do things we aren’t comfortable with. Competitions to me are more fun then stressful no matter how good or bad you do I can count of my team to be proud of me no matter what.”
When asked about what it was about their team that set them apart and what makes them different from the teams they are competing against this weekend, the coaches looked back to look ahead.
“It's how they came together in the beginning. It's how they kept together in the middle and progressed each week. It's how they kept working alongside each other towards the team's success.” Emmons and Durso mentioned. “A couple of weeks ago, it was decided that the end of the season slogan for us was - Unconditionally United. Trusting in themselves and trusting in each other. That sums it up perfectly.”
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The St. Johns competitive theater team recently won the MIFA State title for their studio performance of Queens by Kristen Doherty, the Redwings also earned a second place finish for their main stage performance of Wild Strawberries by Jerry Ayers.
“We prepare a forty five minute play that can be performed either on the main stage or in a black box theater. There are two different events, main stage and studio. At St. Johns we do both because we have fifty kids involved and because we have the kids involved why not?” St. Johns comptetive theater coach Jaclyn Charneski explained. “This year we chose published plays Wild Strawberries by Jerry Airies, and Queens by Kristin Dougherty. This year main stage was comedy and studio was drama.
St. Johns performances of the shows earned them accolades beyond their state placements. St. Johns also took special category awards for People's Choice Award Division 2 Mainstage (Wild Strawberries), the Black Gaff Award Division 1 Studio (Queens), the John Fitzgerald Class Act Award Division 2 Mainstage (Wild Strawberries) and director Nathan Charneski won the Bob Koger Theatre Director of the Year award.
The event is hosted by MIFA (The Michigan Interscholastic Forensic Association), whose mission is to “empower students to become proficient and ethical communicators, critical thinkers, lifelong learners and leaders in a democratic society through interscholastic speech, theater and debate activities for middle and secondary school students.”
A mission that is well attended to in the eyes of St. Johns junior Bianca Garcia. “Competitive theater is not really competition, everyone there is really friendly to each other. We are really all one big family just participating to show each other our shows….it’s a lot of bonding and not really competitive at all.” Garcia continued, “The theater family you make in comp show is amazing and you will have that family forever. You will carry that family with you everywhere you go. The amount of theater knowledge you can get from comp show, and not only theater knowledge, you can learn leadership, you learn taking care of a team, you can learn about just taking care of a whole bunch of people as a group and just being a team with a lot of other people. It’s just really fun!”
Competitive theater is open and welcoming to everyone and is a place where people can find confidence and new friends as endorsed by St. Johns freshman Kaylee Smith. “I find competition theater really enjoyable because I don't make many friends with people, I've struggled making friends. This year everyone in competition theater have been so supportive. I really enjoyed getting into my role with my friends.”
You can learn more about the St. Johns competitive theater team, forensics and many other performance opportunities on the Fine Arts page of the St. Johns School District: https://www.sjredwings.org/finearts/
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