Nylander navigates poms with creative choreography

Mckenna Nylander, 10, has been walking since she was two, and dancing since she was two and a half years old. With all the dance experience, she was the girl to choose for the student choreographer of the Lewis-Palmer Poms team. Beginning with an idea for a carousel themed routine. Nylander created a small group routine for that would be used for a basketball game performance.

Throughout the eighteen years of growing up, a child will constantly change his or her extracurricular activities, trying to find who he or she really are and what activities he or she enjoys. However, contrary to the popular belief, Nylander has continued dance for twelve and a half years, and has never felt the need to quit.

“I started dance because my mom was a dancer throughout her life and I wanted to continue her legacy”, Nylander said, “I have such a passion for it and I’ve been doing it for so long that it has become a big part of my life. I have met such incredible people and I love getting to share my passion for it with other people.”

Due to the many home basketball games in the 2016 season, the Poms Team has been overwhelmed with learning routines to keep the halftime show interesting and keeping the Poms team from becoming ‘old news’. To solve this issue, Head coach, Marlene Beatty, decided that some of the team would choreograph a group performance that would be optional to practice over the winter break. Despite this solutions, the routine still lacked a choreographer. Isabelle Allner, 9, said that Mckenna immediately jumped on the opportunity.

“I felt like Poms needed to show a different side,” Nylander said. “We do an awful lot of pom, hip-hop, and jazz style dances, but we’ve never done contemporary and since I’m the most experienced in that genre, our head captain Devynn Ritchie let me choreograph the routine”.

Nylander says to have always loved to choreograph routines; ever since she was a little girl. This, she thought, was the perfect opportunity for her.

“When I was little girl at my studio I would always correct the older girls on their moves,” Nylander said. “I would sit in my room for hours just choreographing routines.  When I got the opportunity to choreograph a dance for my fellow teammates, I was so excited.  That has been a goal I have wanted to achieve my whole life because I have always wanted to have one of my choreographed dances performed”.

For a month, the Nylander’s routine was practiced constantly to achieve a performance level, so that it could be performed at a halftime show, Lindsey Purham, 10, said. Coach Beatty gave all of power to the team; letting the girls work together to create something ideal. The team set their own practice schedule, choreographed their routine, edited their music and came up with their costumes.

“Since our routine was kind of a mystical theme, we tried to use that in our costumes as well,” Allner said. “We had red and black tutus and a red t-shirt with a diamond cut out in the back and a black tank top underneath, and for our hair we just put them in buns.”

A large amount of time and effort was spent  making the new choreography something that would not be quickly forgotten. After hours of practice and a fair amount of stress, the time for the girls to perform it. Nylander was excited to finally have people see one of her choreographed routine.

“I think people really enjoyed the routine,” Nylander said.  “There was definitely a lot of pressure in having to choreograph this routine. We were supposed to perform it at a Saturday game, so I knew a lot of people weren’t going to come. All of a sudden my coach changed the date and told me we were performing it at a weeknight game instead. I knew there were going to be a lot more people there so I definitely wanted to make it look perfect. I think it turned out really well and people really enjoyed it”.

Performing a routine can be one of the most nerve-wracking for a dancer, especially when it is a routine she choreographed. While it can be stressful, it could also be one of the best feelings when she knows that the applause is for the routine that she had choreographed.

“This routine was definitely a challenge for me all the other girls,” Nylander said. “I think we answered to the challenge and everything turned out really well”.