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      The Aitkin All Starz returned to a nice crowd at the Aitkin High School Sunday after participating in the State Meet. Coach Colleen Christensen thanked everyone for their support and especially the parent's, "Thank you for raising such good kids, they were well behaved this weekend and did a great job on the floor." It was a great experience for the younger dancers and Christensen described the look when they first saw the Target Center floor, "I looked at their eyes and they were like saucers, they were very much in awe. Next year they won't have that look thanks to being there this year." Senior Hannah Jones made it short and sweet, "It was so much fun, so exciting to be there." Four members of the All Starz were selected to sing the National Anthem Saturday. They are pictured on the left. Evelyn Anderson, Kate Boyd, Ava Christensen and Hannah Jones.

      The Aitkin All Starz finished up their trip to the State Dance meet Saturday, dancing well, but not quite good enough to make the High Kick finals. That didn't dim the weekend for Coach Colleen Christensen, who was still fired up even after her team performance, "Our teams high kick performance at the State was nothing short of spectacular. The energy was electric, the kicks were powerful, and the movements were executed with precision. We couldn't be more proud of our dancers and their hard work throughout the season. Finishing 9th was about where we expected, though our goal was to advance to the finals. Regardless of the final placement, the team gave it their all and that's truly what matters. This season has been an incredible journey with some truly remarkable young athletes, and I am beyond grateful for every single moment. A huge thank you to the parents, fans and the entire community for their unwavering support. Of course, I want to extend my deepest appreciation to our coaching staff, this would not have been possible without their dedication and expertise. It's been an amazing season, and we can't wait to see what the future holds! Thank you all for being a part of this memorable ride!!

     The Aitkin All Starz left it all on the floor at the Target Center Friday but weren't able to make the Jazz Finals. Coach Colleen Christensen after her team's performance, "We're so thrilled to be here at the State Dance Tournament with the Aitkin Jazz team!! The energy has been incredible, and the team gave it their all, dancing from their heart. Although we didn't advance to the finals today, we're grateful for the experience and the special moments we've shared with the team. A huge thank you to all our fans and supporters, your dedication means the world to us. We're looking forward to tomorrow's High Kick event and are ready to bring more energy and passion to the floor."

     Here are tonight's finalists in performance order.

1) St. Cloud Cathedral

2) Zumbrota-Mazeppa

3) Crosby-Ironton

4) Yellow Medicine East

5) Lac qui Parle Valley/Dawson-Boyd

6) Holdingford

                                   (photo by Hannah Davis)

    Congratulations to junior Hannah Rasmussen for being named to 2025 MADT All-State Class A Kick Dance Team. The showcase will be held at Prior Lake High School on Saturday, March 8.

Dance This Week

Friday

All Starz at State at Target Center (Jazz)

Saturday

All Starz at State at Target Center (Kick)

Sunday

Welcome home celebration at the High School cafeteria at 12:00 noon

     "Belief" is quite a word. Many years ago, writing a column about the Aitkin All Starz I used the phrase, "If you can believe it, you can achieve it." It has stuck around all this time and is widely used. I have always believed that if you can dream it, you can achieve it as well and it may sound corny and it's mostly true. There are other components of course beyond just dreaming it, but if you are willing to do the work and make the commitment it's certainly a good possibility that you can make it happen. If you "truly" believe, you can write your own destiny and that my friends is what happened to our guest today. She is "truly" an inspiration to anyone who knows her story. She was born in the small town of Kyonggi-do just south of Seoul, South Korea. She picks it up from there, "I was adopted from South Korea in 1992. My family had tried adopting within the United States but did not find a good fit. They took a break until my older brothers insisted they start looking again. They then decided to look overseas and found me. I came to them on September 28th, 1992, when I was 7 months old. To say I feel fortunate is an understatement, I feel pretty darn lucky." Ladies and gentlemen, that young lady is Jenna (Kuiken) Snow and this is her story in her own words, fast forwarding of course.
      "It was one thing to try out for the All Starz dance team but it was an entirely different thing competing as a one-handed dancer. I would not have been so successful without an amazing support group that included my parents, Marion Cordie and Lisa Roth and the amazing close knit community of Aitkin. Growing up my parents always told you're not handicapped/disabled and you will do anything and everything better than your two older brothers that have both their hands. I was blessed with being guided by so many amazing people in the community that instilled that mindset in me as well. People like Sonja Hagestuen who taught me how to play piano at a young age using my prosthetic arm. My elementary gym teacher Mr. Werner, taking the time to break down every sport for me and modify it so I could play no matter what. And of course, my amazing dance coaches, Marion Cordie and Lisa Roth who took on the challenge of adding a one-handed dancer to their dance team. It wasn't until years later that I realized what Marion and Lisa did for me that helped me seamlessly blend in with my teammates through specific choreography and uniform choices. Each dance I competed in they made sure I could execute each movement safely and look unison with my teammates. I wore a special glove over my prosthetic that matched the gloves worn by the team and protected my teammates from the hard metal on my prosthetic arm. Marion and Lisa's choreography over the years did such a great job blending me into the teams choreography that it wasn't until my senior year at the State that a judge realized I was missing a hand and had watched me for years compete without realizing it. Marion and Lisa made sure that I felt very much a part of the dance team without ever making me feel handicapped or less than anyone else. It truly helped spark a confidence in me that I would never have gained without them. Some of my fondest memories of this team didn't always include winning medals but rather the moments I was able to bond with my teammates and coaches. Participating on the annual lock-in at the beginning of the season, taking dance lessons at Music General dance studio in Brainerd and working on choreography with the coaches as a choreographer and captain. The neat thing I got to experience was the high kick team placing 4th in my freshman year, 3rd as a sophomore, 2nd my junior year and finally 1st in  my senior year when we danced to Michael Jackson's Thriller. While we went to State every year with no guarantee of making finals or placing, it was neat to see the team improve year after year, placing better and better until we won the State my senior year. I think this truly showed that hard work, a great coaching staff and a very supporting community can take a team a long way. Wishing the current All Starz good luck at State and to remember the "why". Medals are great but the memories you make along the way and the teammates you bond with are what will shape you for life."

     That, of course is not the end of the story because you can "believe" no matter how old you are and how much you have already accomplished. Jenna decided to follow in the footsteps of her dad, Paul Kuiken and become a chiropractor. Can you imagine being a chiropractor and only having one hand, oh what challenges lay ahead for this young lady. She was basically turned away at every turn but Jenna was not going to let that stop her. She kicked down all the doors and didn't stop until she had become the only one-handed person to ever pass all the National chiropractic boards in history. There are other one-handed chiropractors in the United States but all have lost their hand after passing the boards. If that is not "truly" believing I don't know what else to say. Dr. Jenna (Kuiken) Snow now owns her own clinic, "The Spinery" in the Twin Cities. All Starz proud to be sure. Now young ladies on the All Starz 2025 team here is the message to you. You've done the work, some of you for the final time for Aitkin, don't miss a minute of the State this week and make memories for you and your parents and friends. Whether there is hardware at the end or not, it really doesn't matter does it. It's the end of the journey that started months ago when you made that commitment. Best of luck ladies!

 "Glory days, yeah they'll pass you by, glory days, in the wink of a young girl's eye,                                              glory days, glory days"  (Bruce Springsteen)      

      There have been many State appearances for the Aitkin All Starz but the period from 2010-2017 was extra special because in that span of eight years there were eight State Championships, two of those years brought the "daily double", winning both Jazz and High Kick in the same year. That's why I call this period the "Glory Days". In the over three decades of competition for the Aitkin Dance Team there have been many outstanding individual dancers and more importantly outstanding teams, but two of the unforgettable dancers from that period were kind enough to share some of their memories from over a decade ago.

     Angelica Montano was a dancer from 2008-2011 and an All-State selection twice, for Kick in 2010 and for Jazz in 2011. Here's what Jel had to say" Going to State, for me, was everything. It was a culmination of all the hard work, the conditioning, the hours of drilling skills, formations and perfecting our performances. It was a confirmation of our strength and our determination. Although some never thought of dance as a sport, we pushed through that. We dominated our division and were always striving for improvement and for ingenuity and creativity in the sport. We carved our own path, Going to State built my confidence as a performer and as an athlete and reinforced pride in the support we were given by our community."  One of the all-time great dancers in the storied history of the Aitkin Dance Team.

      Maddi (Johnson) Horn remembers virtually every dance they did in her years from 2011-2016. She has good reason because in her years she was part of 6 State titles, 5 runners-up and a third place finish. What are her memories, "I'd say that my fondest memories of State revolved around the "feeling", the feeling when we stepped on the floor. It was electrifying, the energy amongst the team. You could feel that we were all connected and ready to fight for every single point. We always delivered! I remember feeling a determination like no other, making eye contact with the coaches as they willed us onward through the dances to keep fighting. There's no way to describe it; it's the most adrenaline, nervous, yet the most sure of myself I ever felt dancing! It was some of the best years of my life. It's all I want for my team and why I started coaching." (Maddi is currently the Head Coach at Wadena-Deer Creek) She will always be the G.O.A.T. in my mind and one of the cornerstones of the greatest eight years in dance history for the All-Starz. Thanks to both Jel and Maddi for sharing their memories and thoughts with us.

      Hopefully you enjoyed our three-part series, and I hope it brought back a lot of memories for some of you. It's always fun to look back but it's also important to look to the future. As Kristi pointed out in part two, "life skills, respect, discipline, teamwork, confidence and friendships" are all important parts of success and things she learned from the dance program. Tradition is also part of the history of the Aitkin Dance Team. All the dancers reiterated how important it is to enjoy the journey and the memories of being at State. Don't forget commitment and dedication in that list of things to bring success to your program. The 2025 version of the All Starz has made a big jump this season and I think if you look at teams of the past and this year's team you will find that there isn't a lot of difference, a mixture of youth and experience, great coaching and that will to win. Enjoy the journey Aitkin All Starz and we'll be right there with you. Always remember, The All Starz are winners!! It won't be long and you'll be having your own "Glory Days."

       As ten years passed in the history of the Aitkin Dance Team things were coming together and in 2001 they won their first State Championship, in the Kick division. They were known as the Aitkin All Starz, and they were eighteen strong. Names included Andrea Blake, Ashley Butenhoff, Ashley Heins, Tricia Schneider, Amber Hunt, Nicole Schwartz, Elizabeth May, Megan Ritter, Katie Midthun, Anna Gorecky, Brittany Swanson, Megan Lundberg, Brenda Smith, Kari Thompson, Amanda Westerlund, Emily Johnson, Kristi Patnode and Amy Lammers. Captains that year were Ritter and Hunt. Marion Cordie was still the Head Coach but her assistant was a woman who would go on to become a legend in Minnesota dance and take her teams to several State titles including a "daily double", the first ever in Minnesota, Lisa Roth. Kristi (Patnode) Van Camp was a rookie on that team, but she remembers the season well, from start to finish. "Dance will always hold some of the best memories of my life! Dance molded me and helped me to become the person I am today, in so many more ways than dancing, the life skills, discipline, teamwork, confidence, respect, friendships, all of it. I joined the All Starz for the 2000-2001 season. We had 18 dancers and if I recall about 7 of us were rookies. Our coaches were the dynamic duo mother/daughter team of Marion Cordie and Lisa Roth. It was a year of hard work of conditioning and team bonding. Our coaches were strict and focused and hard practices were long and difficult. I recall often being exhausted and worn out, but I knew that the coaches wanted us to succeed just as bad as we did. Our hard work showed once competitions started. If I again recall correctly, our kick dance was undefeated all season until Sections, which to be honest was just a "check-up" we needed to get our game faces back on and prep us for the State when we were titled Sections 2nd. place kick team. I recall walking into the Xcel Center and looking at the floor we were going to be competing on and thinking we were living a dream. We were so amped up to be there but nervous to dance against the best in the state, some of which we had never seen before. We were hopeful to place in the top three and bring home a medal. State Champs was a total dream we talked about and manifested in so many conversations and at practices and competitions throughout the year. I remember standing in line holding hands waiting for the placing countdown. We all squeezed our hands together not knowing what was next. Then over the loudspeaker came our kick song as they announced Aitkin All Starz as the 2001 State Champions. The amount of Aitkin tears almost flooded that stadium that day. What a feeling, what a memory! Next time you walk through the halls at Aitkin High School look for the 2001 State trophy. Take a look at the picture and you will see a team of young hard working girls and their strict coaches, and tears rolling down their big smiling cheeks. A team that was the underdog for so many years, but with amazing coaches and hard, hard work in practices that turned into State Champs! 
    Van Camp has never wandered too far from the dancing world, and she has a message for this years team as they prepare for State. "The Aitkin Dance Team of this year reminds me so much of my first year. They have built such an amazing culture among their team/coaches and the Aitkin Dance community. They've put in so much time and hard work this year. Their efforts have certainly paid off and are getting noticed. Their comeback this year has been incredible to watch. The community is excited and proud. I wish them the best of luck at the 2025 State Championships and will be cheering them on. Here we go All Starz, State Champs 2025, You can do it!!
     2001 was an exciting year but there was more to come, next time we'll get into what I call the "Glory Years". Yup, it gets even better.

      Marion Cordie started something in 1992 that has turned into something nobody really envisioned. The Aitkin Dance Team began a run that year that turned into almost yearly trips to State, nine State titles in Kick and another two in Jazz. Impressive, to say the least. But where did it all begin, let's let Cordie tell you about it. "It was along journey for the dance team. I sat on a lot of committees. We started with eight and ended up with six at the first tournament. My fondest memories were the many state trips when you had to go through sections. It was the most fun though in the early years when the program was building. Names like Lori Burgstaler, Kami Babin, Jacki Amundson, Ann Lundquist, Pam Torgerson, Laura Dotzler, Georgi Tabolich, Cindy Gale and Molly Schoepf. My first assistant was Jodie Johnson. It was a great time and I'm so happy to have been a trailblazer in the sport of dance."  She is the "Godmother" of dance at Aitkin in my opinion. She remembers that first year very well, "They didn't have Sections back then so everybody went to the prelims. That first year we were 9th, the next year we were 4th. They had Kick, Jazz Funk and Novelty divisions.  Eventually they went to just Kick and Jazz. They went to three classes, A, AA and AAA the same time Sections started."

      Well, I caught up with three of those girls on the first team and they shared their memories. First up Ann (Lundquist) Espeseth. "Being the first dance team in the history of Aitkin High School, we were a small but mighty team. We had to work twice as hard to be recognized and prove ourselves. It was a season of hard work, pulled muscles and grit but we did it. We were a team of six that took our performance to the State floor. It was intimidating and exciting all at the same time. It makes me proud that I will forever be able to say that I was part of the first team that paved a path for future teams."

     Kami (Babin) Genz was also a member of the that first team and she will never forget the experience, "As a member of the charter dance line at AHS it was an honor to pave the way for the dance lines of the past three decades. Going to State that initial year for me, as a co-captain with my best friend Lori, as a senior, my only year, the experience was something I'll value and always be proud of. We were a team in the truest sense of the word. We did remarkably well for a first year team at State. I still love to re-watch our State dance on tape every now and again. Watching it makes me smile every time and I get a little teary-eyed."

      Lori Burgstaler was on the ground floor of this program, and she remembers it well, "This first team has a special bond and a strong sense of legacy surrounding the formation of the team and that first year experience. For me it started in 1990 when Marion Cordie approached me and a classmate after a Just for Kix performance and asked if I would be interested in helping get a danceline started. (it wasn't called dance team until later.) Since JFK ended in tenth grade at that time I said YES. We went through so much for a year and a half with recruiting, getting organized with a constitution and choreography. I won't get into the politics surrounding adding another activity at the school but in the end, we had a place to practice and a school to represent. We started with ten girls, but a couple dropped off for personal reasons and injury. We danced that year at State with eight girls. At that time dance was considered an art and would later become an athletic sport recognized by the MSHSL. Going to State that first year was like no other experience we ever had, (going to the big city was scary enough) coming from outstate. We had never performed in front of such a giant crowd, nor had we performed on such an amazing floor. The floor felt like we were on a trampoline compared to the hundreds of hours spent on the concrete cafeteria floor. I remember feeling like our kicks were going to fly over our shoulders and it was a good thing we had strengthened our hamstrings so we could get our kicks to come back down. Looking back, I am so grateful for Marion Cordie initiating this team and having the faith and dedication to get this legacy started. It came full circle for me when my daughter showed interest and was an All Starz dancer from 7th-12th grade and captained her team in grades 10-12 and is this year helping on the coaching team."

     The Aitkin Dance Team has come a long way since that first team. As they prepare for the State next week, we'll continue to look back at this highly successful program every few days. See you next time.

      "Dreams", by definition are stories and images that we create while we sleep. I have to believe that not too many people could have envisioned what happened Saturday at the Section 4A Dance competition at Hawley High School. The Aitkin Dance Team who have danced all season under the mantra of "one goal, one heart, one team" saw their dreams come true as they captured 2nd place in Kick and 3rd place in Jazz to send both teams off to the Target Center in two weeks for the State Meet. Coach Colleen Christensen was beside herself after the meet, "We are so proud of this team. Each routine today was by far the best of the year. They left everything on the floor and we couldn't ask for anything more. Regardless of what the outcome would have been, we were incredibly proud of their performances. Going into today we were ranked 4th in Jazz and 6th in Kick so to be called 3rd and 2nd was unreal. We had set our goals on getting hardware and earning a trip to the State but to actually have it happen for both is an amazing feeling. We are so grateful to have two more weeks together." Ava Christensen is one of the All Starz seniors, "This day means so much to me and is a huge accomplishment. The hard work has truly paid off this year. I am incredibly proud of every single dancer on this team and so grateful we have two more weeks together!" Natalie Crowther, another senior was also very happy, "Today is a day I truly will never forget. Every girl on this team means the world to me and I'm so excited to dance next to these girls at Target Center. When the days got hard every single girl pushed harder and the work paid off!" In the Jazz category the Championship went to the C-I Rangerettes with 5 rank points with Hawley next with 10 rank points. Aitkin was 3rd with 18 rank points. In the Kick division it was also the Rangerettes winning with 5 rank points, the All Starz next with 12.5 rank points and Hawley 3rd with 13.5 rank points. Hannah Jones is the other senior on this team and although she didn't get a chance to dance much this season, she shares the excitement of moving on to State, "Today was incredible and honestly doesn't seem real. This team has been working so hard all season and making it to State in both routines is an extra cherry on top of my senior season as an All Star!" The State happens Feb.14-15 at the Target Center. Plenty of time to sleep and dream, right?

       The Aitkin All Starz Dance Team has had a storied and successful history over the past forty years. Their first State hardware came in 2001 when they won the title in High Kick Precision. They followed that up with another Championship in High Kick in 2003 and another in 2004. There was a brief lull that ended in 2010 and started a run of titles not often seen in Minnesota history. They won the High Kick in 2010, then in 2012 they captured the first ever double dip. grabbing both the High Kick and the Jazz title in the same year. In 2014 they began a run of four straight titles in High Kick, adding another Jazz title in 2017 as well. They picked up more hardware with 3rd. place finishes in 2018 and 2019 and they are poised to make another run soon. When you total those Championships up it comes to nine High Kick State titles and two Jazz crowns. That’s impressive to say the least. There is no reason to think those totals won’t start adding up in the near future.