BonnerSprings.com

It’s an early morning for members of the Bonner Springs High School Dazzlers dance team.

Making the 6 a.m. practice is often a kind of rolling-out-of-bed, throwing-your-clothes-on experience, says captain and BSHS senior Brenna Hoch, who has been with the Dazzlers since her freshman year.

Right now, practices are only two days a week. But a week prior to July 18, when the girls will head to the Lake of the Ozarks for an intensive dance camp, they will practice each day, Hoch said, arriving at the Bonner Springs High School gymnasium at 6 a.m. and dancing their hearts out until practice is over two hours later.

But trading in leisurely, summertime sleep-ins for up-at-dawn, grueling dance training is a small price to pay, the Dazzlers say. What they get in return is a chance to shine with a team that many on the Dazzlers refer to as their second family.

“These girls, I love them,” said sophomore Sammy Weller, who has been with the dance team for about a year-and-a-half. “And they really do turn into your family.”

The bonding component comes byway of summer dance camps, regular rehearsals and performances throughout the year at pep assemblies, football and basketball games and even at Tiblow Days in August. The girls work hard to create performances that Weller said differentiate them from anybody else at BSHS.

“Nobody else does this at our school,” she said. “You really put yourself out there and you do what you want to do and you show them what you got and you bring it and you bring it all and you bring it to every game,” she said. “And it’s stressful, but it’s cool. Nobody else does it like we do.”

This year, the dance team has added new members to its “family” by joining forces with the flag team. Dance coach Cindy Hayes said the decision to combine the teams was made to not only add more members to the Dazzlers — there will now be 20 total dancers — but also to “start something new to spark some enthusiasm and have a new program for them.”

Adding the flag team to the mix will now give both teams the chance to perform at sporting events, as the Dazzlers have done, but also with the BSHS band at parades, as the flag team did, Hayes said.

“To be a part of building something new, something different, is really cool,” Weller said of the change.

As the girls prepare for camp this summer, dancing choreographed steps in rehearsals to “When I Grow Up,” by the Pussycat Dolls, and “Vogue,” by Madonna, the love of dancing seems to supersede the effort they put into learning the steps.

“It’s like you’re in your own little world,” said co-captain and junior Cinthia Ebertz, who has been with the dance team for three years. “You’re out there and you don’t want anything to stop. You’re like, ‘Oh, hey, I want to keep going, I want to keep dancing.’”

When they go to camp, which will be from July 18 to July 21, the girls will work from morning to night, learning techniques and dance routines and competing against schools from throughout the area for ribbons and trophies. Hoch said the camp is exhausting, but very effective.

“We come back, and I think the team has improved a lot after camp,” Hoch said.

For Ebertz, camp is the highlight of the summer.

“After all the hard work and the practices early morning,” she said, “you’re going, ‘Yes, camp, finally, it’s just time to show off.’”

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