Thursday the Notre Dame dance team, or NDDT, embarked on a new journey. They are traveling to Orlando, Florida, to compete in the Contest of Champions National Dance Competition.

This competition began in 1984 and takes place at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida.

To perform at the Contest of Champions, a team must sign up and pay an entrance fee. There is no qualifying event, so all teams are welcome to compete.

Senior Kennedy Onell, a member of the dance team, said, “This competition is an open invite to all dance teams across the nation. We just had to come up with the funding in order for our team to go on this trip.”

The three main fundraising events were two kids clinics and a coffee fundraiser. At the kids clinics, the NDDT taught girls ages K-8 a dance that would be performed for their parents at the end of the clinic.

Another fundraiser that the NDDT participated in this year was a coffee sale. Onell explained how the fundraiser worked by saying, “We partnered with Crystal Coffee to come up with our own line of coffee, and all of the proceeds went to help fund our trip. The coffee was sold at Crystal Coffee as well as the concessions stand at school for a period of time.”

The NDDT is appreciative for all of Crystal Coffee’s help.

The NDDT includes Onell, Hingtgen, Ekaterina Diestler, Yvonne Roznik, Grace Balison, Anna Zimmermann, Claire Therrien, Megan Zasuly, Helen Treankler, Alexa Vande Corput, Yana Williams, Anna Kyles, Bridget Kapic, Katie Crane and Lilly Kaye.

In addition to competing at the Contest of Champions, the team will also be enjoying some down time at Walt Disney World.

Senior captain Hingtgen said, “I’m looking forward to competing, bonding with my team, and going on the fun rides at Disney.”

Overall, the experience of the Contest of Champions is expected to be a positive team-building experience through the competition and the fun at Disney World.