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Stephanie Li

Ninth grader Ellie Hoppe is a member of SPA’s dance team. Hoppe has been performing on jazz and kick team at school since she was in seventh grade but her dance career started way back when she was only six.

“I always liked dance but my parents both have full time jobs so I wasn’t really able to do dance after school. So then when it was just part of school, I was like ‘Oh, it sounds like something I would like,’” she said.

Hoppe’s favorite moments are at the dance meets.

“The environment of meets is fun. Our team has a tradition called the Rockstar Award that goes to the person who has excelled over the season and been a really good teammate. Last year I won that and that was pretty fun,” Hoppe said.

Competitive dance is a serious sport, which means the judges are extremely picky about presentation. Each year, Hoppe has to buy a new costume and jazz shoes to go with it.

“[Our shoes] depend on the [color of the] costume but this year and last year we had tan jazz shoes that have the elastic on the side and that’s really important because if it’s not on the side and someone has it on the top, you can get points docked,” Hoppe said.

The jazz shoes Hoppe uses allows them to spin and point while also providing support that accommodates the multitude of dance moves including kicks, shoulder rolls, and Russians.

“Our shoes let us point our feet to avoid straining or tearing muscles and also they let us spin with enough traction that we don’t fall over but not too much so we can’t spin,” Hoppe said.

Something unique that doesn’t apply to other sports, is that jazz shoes have traction lines on the bottom.

“When [the traction lines] get too worn out, then we have to get new [shoes] or for a quick fix, sometimes we scratch them with a key to add some traction, it doesn’t really work that well though,” Hoppe said.