NP3 Dance Team Headed to Nationals

Courtesy Photo

By Krista Chouang
Co-Editor | The Pacific Times

The NP3 Dance Team will wrap up their competition season this weekend at nationals in Anaheim.

After months of preparation, the team had their Forte competition on Jan. 20 at Homestead High School in Cupertino. They brought home awards for first place with their novelty, small hip-hop, dance/drill, and large military routines, and second place with their extra small dance routine. They also won the Crowd Pleaser award, which is given to the team that gets the most cheers and support from spectators and other teams.

Co-captains Katelyn “KD” Dumag and Lana Le competed in the Extra Small dance segment for the first time in NP3 history.

Courtesy Photo

The Regionals competition was on Feb. 4 at Bella Vista High School in Fair Oaks. The small hip-hop, dance/drill, and large military routines won first place, the novelty routine won second place, and the extra small dance routine won third place.

During competitions, dancers can compete in drill downs, in which they must follow a series of military-like commands, and the dancers flinch, they will get eliminated until there is only one left standing. At this competition, junior Stephanie Labang won first place in drill downs and sophomore Gia Bedi won second place. This was the first time any NP3 dancers had placed top three in drill downs in NP3 history.

“I was in shock,” said Labang.

The State competition took place at Monta Vista High School at Cupertino on Feb. 11. The small hip-hop, dance/drill, and large military routines won first place, the novelty routine won second place, and the extra small dance routine won third place. Junior Sara Pabst was awarded fourth place in drill downs, making her the fourth person in NP3 history to place in the top five after former dancer Katelynn Tran.

This year is the first time in recent memory that there is no all-male team at NP3. With auditions beginning in April, the team is encouraging all students to audition, including male students so they can bring back the all-male routine.

“Not enough guys auditioned to meet the all male requirement,” said junior Bani Singh.

The team will be heading to Nationals on March 16 and will compete on March 17 and March 18 in Anaheim. After their competition is over, they will spend a day at Disneyland.

“I’m super excited and I have a really good feeling about all our routines,” said Labang. “I hope that we can make it to finals.”