Aitkin Dance Team

       The Aitkin All Starz competed in the Granite Ridge Conference Championships Tuesday at Little Falls. This was a varsity event only and in the Kick division the All Starz finished 4th out of 8 teams with 278 total points and 12.5 rank points. In the Jazz division they were 6th out of 8 teams with 266 points and 17 rank points.  The dancers are off until Jan. 23 when they travel to Hawley for their final Varsity and JV competition before Sections for the Varsity on Jan. 31. 

      The Aitkin All Starz were at St. Cloud Cathedral Saturday for a very tough competition. Coach Colleen Christensen fills us in on how things went, "As expected it was a day of tough competition, but we held our own against top Class A powerhouse teams. We placed about where we expected to be in the ranks and have solid feedback to take back to practice next week and know what areas we need to focus on in all four routines. The athletes put out some of their best performances of the season and we are very proud of their steady improvements. Next up is our Senior, Parents and Sponsor Recognition Night on Monday in the Bailey Gym at 7:00. We'd love to see everyone there to support our girls at their final home event of the season."

      The scores from the days activities showed the Varsity Kick team ending in 10th place of 12 teams while the Jazz team was 11th of 12 teams. On the JV side the Kick team was 4th of 7 teams and the Jazz team was 7th out of 9 teams. The All Starz are in Little Falls for Conference on Tuesday then have next weekend off.

       The Aitkin All Starz were in Foley Thursday for the Conference Championships. Coach Colleen Christensen on how they did. "JV kick placed 4th out of 5 teams but received 200 total points tonight and met our goal of 40 average points. This was the highest scoring performance by JV kick of this season or last. 7 of the 10 score sheet categories saw significant increases. The JV squad has two more competitions left this season and they are sure to keep climbing up the scoresheet. We are so proud of their improvement and accomplishments." How about the Varsity kick, "They finished 5th out of 8 teams with 279 total points. We made several choreography changes over the winter break, and we expected our scores to reflect in those categories, but that was not the case unfortunately. We had some execution and timing errors tonight. We are up against some really tough competition this Saturday at St. Cloud Cathedral, so we'll be working hard at practice Friday to clean up our movements, hit our formations and be precise with our timing. We have full faith in this team to overcome this little dip in scores and bounce back stronger than ever."

      The Aitkin All Starz were in Detroit Lakes on a cold Saturday and posted some good scores against some great competition. Coach Colleen Christenson after the meet, "We had another day of season high scores on all four routines. Our JV jazz was 4th out of 8 teams, the JV kick was 2nd of 4 teams, Varsity Kick was 3rd of 8 and Varsity jazz was 5th out of 8 teams."

       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.