“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – This is a famous quote from John Quincy Adams about leadership, something that is definitely present on Notre Dame Academy’s Dance Team. 

The dance team has already started off with great success this year and this is thanks to the leadership of two captains – Alora Schneider and Grace Nimmer. 

Both girls have been dancing from a young age and have been captain since the beginning of the school year. 

“It’s really fun and it gives me a lot of responsibilities. It’s definitely a lot of work, but it’s worth it to be able to motivate the other dancers,” said Schneider. 

The dance team has a vigorous training schedule to prepare for competitions and eventually nationals in the summer, this year taking place in Orlando. The competitions include some of the team’s favorite memories and moments with one another. 

“I love the bus rides to competitions or in between dances because everybody -there’s a mixture of nervousness and excitement- and everybody just acts like themselves and we’re all having fun,” said Schneider.

“I also love the competitions because we can all perform together, and it’s a special moment,” said Nimmer. 

Both girls agreed that one of the biggest leadership challenges they’ve faced is disciplining the team and focusing on the tasks at hand without being negative. One of their main goals is to always be supportive of one another. 

“Being strict and focused on the goals while also trying to be supportive and be there emotionally for all the dancers is definitely a challenge,” said Schneider. 

“I agree with that,” said Nimmer “It’s hard to be strict without being hurtful. Just balancing all of these different things.”

Speaking of goals, they have high expectations for this coming season. The team’s goal is to attend state and get their names called while there. This is a process where the top half of all teams are announced in front of everyone. Besides regional and state competitions, they plan on attending nationals in Orlando, and preparations for that have already begun. 

“We’re going to state, that’s the number 1 goal. We’re gonna go to state and get our name called. At state, the top 3 teams get trophies and the top half get announced,” said Schneider.

“That’s the main goal, for us to get our name called at state,” said Nimmer. “We’ve already started planning for nationals and getting all the paperwork signed for it and things like that. We prepare right after state by continuing our practices and continue working on our routines,” said Nimmer. 

This year the team is taking their jazz and pom routine to nationals and are looking at taking an extra hip hop routine down just for fun. 

Both captains graduate this year, and they both plan on somehow continuing their dance careers into college. 

“I want to be on a college dance team and continue with that,” said Nimmer. 

“I am definitely going to try to do some extracurricular involving dance. I think a cheer squad would be fun!” said Schneider.