Seniors and captains, McKenzie Jackson and Amelia Quint have been on the Bellevue West dance team for four years. They both began dancing at a young age.

“My mom owns a studio, so she kind of put me in [dance] when I was able to walk, and then I’ve just been in it ever since,” Quint said.

The unity and sense of family is what makes the dance team so important for senior captain McKenzie Jackson.

“It feels like an ever changing family, because from my freshman year to here, we have so many different people on the team, and we’ve gotten so much better, but we’ve gotten better together,” Jackson said.

Quint talks about what being a captain means to her; through growth and team management.

“Dance Team, it’s definitely been kind of like a growth situation for me,” Quint said. “It’s been a good feeling to, like, figure out how to manage a team, be able to work with what you have kind of a situation and just like, be able to use everybody’s strengths to come together and make something good.”

After years of goals and dreams, finally being able to put them in place is what makes being a captain special to Jackson.

“I think it’s really special,” Jackson said. “So this was kind of like a cool experience that we’ve been talking about since freshman year, like, things that we wanted to do with the team, things that we wanted to change. Now we finally get the chance to do what we’ve wanted to do.”

Though dance is what brings the team together, positivity can run low. Jackson and Quint do all they can to keep the team going in the low moments.

“And we try to pump them up and try to get them to remember, this is why we’re doing it,” Jackson said. “Like we’re doing this for a reason we’re gonna look good when we’re done.”

This year, dance team captains have high expectations for their members.

“I think it’s gonna be great, as long as we realize that everybody is here for the same reason,” Quint said.