Last Thursday three ADM dancers competed at State dance solos at Berg Middle School in Newton. The dancers from ADM include Isabelle Karwal (junior), Genevieve Book (junior), and Lilee Wahlert (sophomore). Sanctioned by the Iowa State Dance Team Association, over 900 dancers competed in over 14 categories of color guard or dance. ADM dancers began preparation for State in August, including picking solo songs, choreographing, and learning the solo. There were three judges at State solos and they scored dancers out of 100. Genevieve Book earned 19th place, Isabelle Karwal earned 28th, and Lilee Wahlert earned 24th. They all earned D1 rankings meaning they had an average score of 80 or higher.
“The hardest part of State solo preparation was pushing myself to be my best and putting in lots of time and effort. I would stay late at the studio, practice in my time off, and put in work when I didn’t feel like it. Preparation was a struggle but worth it,” said Lilee Wahlert.
Everyone has their favorite parts of solo day.
Isabelle Karwal said, “[Her favorite part of the day was] stopping at McDonald’s where we hit a curb with the van,” while Wahlert said, “Pushing past the barriers I had set for myself and stepping out of my comfort zone.”
Genevieve Book said, “I spent time with my teammates because everyone was so supportive.”
“Walking in the building was very intimidating because there were so many people there,” said Wahlert. “Everyone looked extremely talented and when we went back into the room to warm up it was eye-opening because lots of girls were doing tricks, and we knew we were going to have to work hard. We knew it would not be an easy win because everyone was just as good.”
State solos are just one of the larger events ADM dancers will perform at. This year they also perform at multiple competitions around Iowa including Dance Team Union. This year State solo finals are held in Des Moines in December.
