This year, the step team has made a comeback. After four years, seniors Keyland Burel and Chris Moore decided to create Showtime. Showtime, which is sponsored by English teacher Jason Snipes and led by Burel and Moore, continues to bring together students at the school.

Because Showtime offers students a place to express themselves and gives them the opportunity to be involved in something new, the team has been able to recruit members of all grades.

“I wanted to join the step team because I wanted to be a part of something new,” junior Taviaun Ferrell said. “I wanted to get involved in new things this year. Also, both of my parents were on a team when they were in college and the stories they told me about stepping really made me want to join.”

With the formation of Showtime, the next step was to create the routines. Snipes, Burel, and Moore bring forward the ideas for choreography and share them with the team. As an open space, every member is able to give their input and see how each idea fits together.

“Most of our routines come from our sponsor and captains,” junior Tibyus Williams said. “Everyone on the team has an input, whether it’s coming up with formations, or intros and outros. The captains make sure to take everyone’s input and find ways to put those ideas into our performance.”

Like any other dance team, Showtime requires hours of practice before a performance. It’s crucial for the team to be synchronized and in rhythm with each other in order to make the steps pristine. To be successful as a group, the team has to make sure everyone is together.

“Practice is every weekday after school and sometimes during block lunch,” Ferrell said. “My routine to learning is just practice and being willing to learn. We all get frustrated when we don’t get the routine right the first time, but you have to be willing to learn more and practice repeatedly to get better and make the team better.”

Showtime performed for the first time at the school’s third pep rally on Oct. 14. Since this was the team’s first performance, they were nervous but prepared to put on the show.

“Our first performance came out way better than we expected,” junior Alexia Pullen said. “We were a little nervous and kind of scared that we were going to mess up, but when it came down to it, we all enjoyed it. We went out there and tried to put on a good show and tried to have fun with it.”

After their first performance, Showtime received great reactions from students and teachers, which built the team’s confidence and also motivated them to continue to have better performances.

“If I can speak for the team we would all say that day was the best experience for us,” Ferrell said. “We all had a great time and received so many compliments from people. After that day, we knew we were great in too many ways to explain and most of all, it brought our team closer as a team. As our first performance we did great in many ways.”

As Showtime prepares for their next performance, they hope to continue to find improvements and make sure that their routine is great if not better than the last. The team believes that even if a performance is good, there is always an opportunity to find ways to strive for more.

“For our next performance, we’re getting ready by practicing, bringing something new, and staying humble,” Ferrell said. “We know that we’re good and gifted, but we also know that we can keep going and keep getting better and that’s what we’re going to do.”