Last weekend the Antioch dance team went to Stevenson High School to participate in a 10-team dance competition. They were hoping to come out on top, but it seemed something was in the back of all the dancer’s minds the whole time. The “Stevenson Curse” is the belief that the dance team always comes up short at that particular competition. 

“Every year, we do not perform well at the Stevenson competition,” junior Kennedie Tan said. “We like to call it the curse because it humbles us.”

This is often seen as a good thing by the team as they went from getting second place to ninth place in just the span of a week, keeping them motivated to keep working harder and perfecting their dance routine. There were several aspects the team needed to improve on after the competition.

“We could improve on Facials and stamina, but we did a pretty good job remembering changes,” junior Shyanne Hernandez said.

It did not help that before this dance, they had to make many changes to the routine on short notice after sophomore Delany Emering tore her meniscus; changes to her solo part had to happen. Many members of the team commented on the strengths and weaknesses of the team after this tough week, and one of the weaknesses mentioned by Hernandez was the team’s stamina; this was definitely taken into consideration on Tuesday’s practice as the team headed down to the cardio room in hopes to improve their overall stamina during competition.

The dance team was hopeful going into the competition, even knowing that they would have to compete against the other teams and the “curse” plaguing the team.

“We were all determined and focused for the competition,” junior Brooke Devience said. 

This is extremely important to the sport of dance because if they were to come into it with a negative mindset, they might have come out of it a lot more disappointed without the feeling of hope for the competitions coming up after holiday break; they all possess the confidence and skill to do great after this competition and hopefully turn things around at the next competition which will take place at the D117 field house on Jan. 7.