Thomas Jefferson students present idea for school dance team

Thomas Jefferson High School seniors Julia Petrovich and Jaden Lotis have dreamt of the day that they could dance on a school team.

A dance team would provide students at TJ with the opportunity to showcase their skills and talents on a regular basis, tie together arts and athletics, and allow more students to get involved with school activities, they said.

“It would be more variety for TJ. It takes something that’s typically considered art and takes it into the athletic world. It really combines those two worlds that are really separated in high school,” said Julia, 17, who has been dancing for 13 years.

The two students presented their ideas for the creation of a dance team at TJ to West Jefferson Hills school board members on Feb. 18.

They started working on the idea after being tasked as a final project in Lauren Kaszonyi’s public relations class to develop a presentation on something they would like to see in their school.

They did a presentation for high school principal Pete Murphy and public relations director Carrie Lekse and sat down to meet with Superintendent Michael Ghilani to further discuss their ideas.

“It’s something that is offered in every other school in the area,” Julia said.

Their goal is to start a dance team at TJ that would be open to anyone — boys and girls — from ninth through 12th grade. The team would be capped at 20 to 25 students.

Their hope would be for a dance team to start in the 2020-21 school year, with tryouts beginning at the end of this school year.

The team could hold conditioning practices and participate in band camp in the summer, perform on the sidelines and half time performances with the TJ band at football games. They would perform for other sports, like basketball, in the winter and host tryouts each spring.

While they would like to see the team enter competitions, they recommended the district wait a few years for that.

“A dance team here would mean the world to me,” said Jaden, 18, who has been dancing for 15 years.

The two outlined everything from the $2,000 cost for a coach to $50 per uniform, much of which could be funded by a booster group, they said.

They outlined practice locations and how the team would utilize everything from holding practices during Personalized Learning Time to buying T-shirts and other merchandise from the Jag Den.

Board President Brian Fernandes noted the passion both students had during their presentation. However, with them graduating this year, he asked if there were younger students who would be interested in partaking.

Both Julia and Jaden said they know numerous younger students who would like the opportunity to dance at TJ. Many students dance outside of school, but this would allow them to partake in a TJ activity, they said.

A dance team also would help prepare students who want to dance in college – as both Julia and Jaden hope to, but they said they feel they’re at a disadvantage because they weren’t exposed to a dance team in high school.

Ghilani recommended the two host informational sessions during PLT time to gauge student interest.

The two said they could even launch a Google survey to see the interest from younger students.

Board members will need to discuss the idea, Ghilani said.

In order to have the team, “there would be some things that need to be worked out and make sure that it didn’t take away from anything that we offered,” he said.