The presence in front of the student section at each Grosse Pointe South football game is the Grosse Pointe Blue Devils Dance Team lifting the energy of the team with the incredible pep in their step. The two captains, Avery Lenglet ‘25 and Betsy Bouton ‘25, have both been eager to not only grow their dancing strengths, but to also exemplify what it takes to be a responsible leader of the Blue Devil Dance Team.
“It’s a great leadership opportunity, and I have always wanted to help out with guiding younger dancers,” Bouton said. “As Captains, we do a lot of answering questions for the team and planning out decisions and events that are more related to the dancers’ schedules.”
The South Dance Team goes through a rigorous process of individually choosing dancers that would be the best fit for the team. Each dancer looking for a spot on the team is required to audition by learning then performing a short dance phrase and showing off any potential that may be beneficial to the team.
“South Dance Team auditions are not as scary as they seem,” Lenglet said. “When you come into the audition, you have a short period of time where you learn a fun combo, then you’ll have a chance to show off any skills you had from any prior experience of dance.”
Being on the dance team is not light work, however. The task of choreographing each one of these dances takes hours on end and many different choreographers that specialize in different types of dance styles. Most students also have opinions on what dance style they enjoy performing the most.
“Jordan Lorenger choreographed our hip-hop dance, Maddie Petz did our contemporary dance, and Lexi Watson choreographed our sideline numbers,” Bouton said. “My favorite dance this year is our hip-hop dance because I think the song is really fun and hip-hop is my favorite style of dance.”
These dancers have weekly practices that focus on improving their stamina, strength, and cleanliness of each one of their routines. Schedules for these dancers can be time consuming, but they persevere and manage to keep the student in student-athlete. For first Blue Devil Dancer Lily Ozar ‘27, she has found being a part of this team to be extremely beneficial to not only her physical fitness but also her mental well being.
“Being a part of this team I feel has really helped me get involved with school while still doing something that I love,” Ozar said.
The Grosse Pointe Blue Devil Dance Team will forever be a crucial part of each football game, lifting up the spirits of the student section. These Blue Devil dancers put in all the effort and passion into what they do, resulting in this successful dance team.
“Dancing for South is supposed to be about having an opportunity to show your school who you are as a dancer,” Lenglet said. “That is something that most dancers do not get to experience.”
