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by Neal Miyake It's hard enough to handle a 100-girl dance troupe. But for Penny Young, director of the internationally renowned Drill Team Hawaii, deciding to travel to a mainland dance competition in these uncertain times proved to be much more difficult. On March 8, 74 of the girls will be competing in the United Spirit Association's 2003 Junior Independent Dance/Drill Championship at the Cal State Riverside campus. They will be entering several disciplines of dancing, including Dance/Jazz/Hip Hop, Lyrical, Ensemble and Pom, and are the only group from Hawaii entered in the national event. The First Priority, the older squad of Drill Team Hawaii girls, will be competing in a separate national competition in Florida starting late February. Drill Team Hawaii has always been a performance-based dance group. However, every two or three years the team focuses on competition to maintain a high level of excellence at a national level. In 2000, Drill Team Hawaii went to the same dance/drill championship, winning eight of nine events entered. This year, they have prepared ten new routines, including a combination dance/hula performed to a medley of songs from the Lilo and Stitch movie. There will be more than a few of those blue alien Stitches roaming the UC Riverside campus. Young, along with daughter, assistant director and lead choreographer Febray Kaopua have been frenetically making final preparations for the competition, with last minute routine and costume touch-ups. Eight months of practice will culminate into a few short minutes of dancing in front of the judges, so they are leaving nothing to chance. All the girls hope to share the love of dance with their peers on the mainland. With all that's going on in this world, spreading a little aloha could be the best thing to do right now. |
