CHS has a highly competitive dance program offering several dance classes including Dance 1, Dance 2, Dance 3 and the teams JV and Varsity. Sam Waterhouse is one of the few freshman dancers to make it to the varsity level team. On Jan. 31, Waterhouse traveled with the team to nationals. 

Dance is a huge part of Waterhouse’s identity because she has danced for almost all of her life. While growing up, she always was in a dance class or on a team.

“I’ve been dancing since I was 2, so for 12 years now,” Waterhouse said.

The CHS dance team’s lengthy tryout process pushes dancers to their limits and takes several hours of work. As the tryouts go on for days, it takes lots of hard work and dedication.

“So ahead of time, from an email, you receive videos of dances and you have to practice and know them before coming into actual auditions,” Waterhouse said. “It’s very stressful; you have to know them before coming into practice for weeks and weeks.”

After Waterhouse learned these dances, she then performed them with different groups to help identify who she danced best with. The different groups of people can range from different ages and different levels of difficulty.

“Depending on if you are a returner, you take turns doing it with different grades, different people, people from JV, and they see what you work better with,” Waterhouse said.

Doing routines isn’t the only thing tryouts require. They also get a little bit of coaching as well. When in tryouts, they need to see not only dancers’ comprehension of choreography, but they take a deeper look at their technique as well.

Over time, Waterhouse has learned a countless amount of routines with unique choreography and tricks. Waterhouse has a few specific dances in mind that stand out to her.

“I liked our national dances even though it was really very difficult to do, and I also liked our one minute dances that we also did for the football games where we’d go out at halftime,” Waterhouse said.

When competing on a team, dancers continue to train outside of competition to excel in harder levels. Outside of CHS, Waterhouse also dances for another studio for training and conditioning.

“I do go to a studio because you have to keep your training up,” Waterhouse said. “I took a break from the studio team this year. I’m just seeing how it goes with the stress from high school.”

Many students that get a spot on a varsity team for any sport are celebrated in special ways. Waterhouse talks about how the older dancers on varsity surprised her with the good news of making the team.

“They came to my house at like five in the morning and screamed in my room,” Waterhouse said. “There were flashing lights everywhere and they brought me a doughnut.”

The Carlsbad varsity dance team recently traveled to Florida for nationals. They competed against dance teams from all over the United States. 

“We got second in the nation for hip hop, and we got fourth in the nation for jazz,” Waterhouse said. “I’d say that’s a pretty big win.”

The teams practice and prepare their dances for months to get ready for nationals. Lots of time and hard work was behind their performances.

“I am definitely proud of how we did and it took a lot of time and effort to get there,” Waterhouse said. “We went against some really hard teams, and I’m just proud of all the work we put in to get there.”