Greenwood Elementary concludes first season of dance club

By Cheyenne Thomas As a child grows and learns more skills, it is important for them to be able to step out of their comfort zone and interact with others. Before winter break, 20 elementary students at the Greenwood School District had the opportunity to do just that, participating in a dance club program that was started this fall at the district.

The group of students, which ranged in age from second through sixth grade, was coached by Abby Magnuson, a first grade teacher at the Greenwood School District. Originally, she said the idea was created by Greenwood physical education teacher Carey Bryhn, who then reached out to her in late October to see if she would be interested in coaching.

“We officially started in the final week of November,” said Magnuson. “The idea had been tossed around at the end of October and Carey reached out to me to see if I would be interested in coaching, as I had been on a dance team before. I did a dance team in high school; I was the captain of the dance team at GET (Galesville-Ettrick-Trempealeau) High School.”

With such an age range to work with, Magnuson said there were many lessons the children could learn.

“I think they learned how to work together as a team, “ she said. “There were quite a bit of kids that were spread out through the different grades that they normally don’t interact with. Being able to work with others outside their age group was a good experience for them. A lot of them stepped out of their comfort zones and really got into it.”

The students practiced twice each week for four weeks, with their work culminating in a final performance done just before winter break. Magnuson said the goals of the dance team were not too ambitious in their first year; it was mainly about having fun and learning some new skills.

“We focused more on pom-pom routines, arms and fun tricks,” she said. “Tricks seemed to be the big thing that everyone liked to do and those took up most of our routines. They had so much fun doing this, and that was our focus, to just have fun this year.”

Magnuson said she plans to continue coaching the dance team next school year. To avoid conflicts with other sports, she said the plan will be to start around October and practice like they did this year.