Owatonna Dance Team Hosts Community Show

The bleachers were packed Saturday morning at Owatonna High School as the Huskies' dance team hosted a community show to display the high school team's performance and allow other studios to perform. It was the only home appearance for the dance team besides performing at halftime of football and basketball games.

2018-19 is the second year for a high school team for Owatonna. They expanded to three levels of jazz dance with a b-squad added to the varsity and junior varsity teams. OHS has varsity and JV for kick. The Huskies finished sixth in the recent Big Nine competition. Elise Sande earned All-Conference honors, while Kinsie Davison and Lainey Rahn were named honorable mention. Faribault won the conference title for the seventh straight year.

Saturday's schedule included each of the high school teams plus dancers from Owatonna's Just for Kix program and UPDS studio of Owatonna and Albert Lea. In all, spectators enjoyed 19 dances, capped by the Huskies' varsity jazz team performing with high school boys.

Owatonna's teams include nearly 40 dancers. They train in the summer and can have a club team during the fall season. The winter competitive season includes about six to eight meets plus a state competition hosted by the Minnesota State High School League. The Huskies go to sections February 9 at Bloomington Kennedy.

Owatonna's captains are Sande and Morgan Blood. The Huskies coaches are Victoria Johnson, Nikki Burgmaier, Madie Conley, Samantha Hager and Diane Skala. A meet that was on the schedule for Thursday, January 31 in Owatonna against the Rochester schools was canceled due to injuries and illness.