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02/25/2017 11:00 PMThe Branford dance team sets the bar higher every year and always finds a way to fly right over it like a true champion. The 2017 season is proving no exception for the Hornets.
Earlier this month, Branford competed at the Universal Dance Association National Dance Team Championship in Orlando, Florida, where the Hornets made the finals in the hip-hop and jazz divisions. On the heels of its stellar showing at nationals, Branford entered last week’s State Championship aiming to claim the jazz and hip-hop titles for the third straight season, and the Hornets outperformed every opponent to earn the three-peat in both divisions. This marks the first year that Branford has sent each team to the finals at nationals and then won both titles at states, making the 2017 campaign its best one to date.
“It’s overwhelmingly exciting. I’m so proud of this team,” senior captain Lauren Driscoll said. “We’ve overcome a lot this season. It’s a very young team and this is one of the hardest dances we’ve ever done on this team out of the four years I’ve been on it, so to be able to get to this level of being able to perform this type of dance and win, it’s amazing.”
The Hornets started off states by performing their hip-hop routine at Shelton High School on Feb. 25. Branford recorded a score of 268.50 in the Small Varsity Division to finish well ahead of runner-up Stratford with its 236. For jazz, the Hornets were in the Large Varsity Division and competed against teams that had more athletes on the floor. That didn’t matter, though, as Branford scored a 256 to get past second-place finisher Newtown (251). There were 10 teams in both divisions.
Branford has now won a hip-hop title at states in 10 of the last 11 years and done so in jazz five times in the past eight years. It’s nothing new for Branford to put on premier performances in the postseason, but Coach Jacqui Montano said this year’s edition of the Hornets has been clicking on all cylinders for months without ever taking a step back.
“We always have an issue every season where we hit a little midseason slump. It’s November, before the holidays, before competition starts, and we’ve already been practicing for months. It gets hard. Everybody is tired, school is on their brains, there’s a lot going on, and it starts to feel like the motivation is lacking and the bonding dissipates a bit,” said Montano, who’s in her sixth season with the Hornets. “This is the first year I’ve never had that problem. There was no midseason slump this year. They kept fighting the entire time, kept pushing 100 percent at practice, and bonded every chance they got outside of practice. All the way through, that was never an issue.”
Branford’s state champion squad is led by Driscoll, fellow senior captain Sophia Smith, and senior Hailey LaBonte. Melissa Brennan is the lone junior on the team. The Hornets’ sophomores are Casey Allen, Hannah Antonino, Jenna Juliano, Rachel LaBonte, Chloe Lourenco-Lang, and Lily Milici. Branford’s freshman class consists of Samantha Esposito, Johnna Palmese, Bella Petrosino, Juliana Robinson, and Olivia Vitale.
Typically, teams that have so many underclass athletes go through a rebuilding season, although that clearly isn’t the case with the Hornets. Coach Megan Palluzzi appreciates how her athletes come to the high school already owning an excellent skill set as a result of dancing for the Walsh Intermediate School team, which has become a powerhouse in its own right. Of course, getting great leadership from your senior captains doesn’t hurt, either.
“We’re really lucky. It doesn’t always happen, but this year especially, all our freshman who came in and one new sophomore were all part of the Walsh dance team, and we’re lucky that we have a great feeder program in the middle school,” said Palluzzi, who was part of four state champion squads at the high school before graduating in 2010. “Our senior captains did a fantastic job of setting the tone of what the season means, and just the way they embedded it in everyone’s heads that this is what we work for and this is why we work so hard really got to them...Since day one, I knew in tryouts that this team would accomplish incredible things this year.”
Branford’s hip-hop routine at states featured a mix of five songs and included some tempo changes that allowed its dancers to showcase dynamic movement while executing difficult tricks. Coach Montano said it’s the hardest hip-hop routine her team has ever done and added that the Hornets’ performance at states was their best thus far this season.
Montano felt the same way about Branford’s jazz routine. The Hornets danced to the song “Drops of Jupiter” by Train and delivered an emotional performance in which they told a story to the audience.
Senior captain Smith gave an overview of how the Hornets performed in both the hip-hop and jazz competitions.
“We performed hip-hop first and we were focused, confident, and ran out on the floor as if we owned it. We kept up that attitude for the entire routine and it really showed. We were also focused on having fun with the dance and, when it looks like we’re having fun, the judges have fun and it’s more enjoyable for everyone. That helps us get through the dance when we’re tired and really pulls us to the task,” said Smith. “In jazz, we were in the Large Division, which is new for us. We’re usually in the Small Division and so as a team of 12 girls, we were competing against teams of 18, 20, 22 girls, which is seemingly a disadvantage because bigger teams have more opportunities for visuals, but we didn’t let that stop us. We knew we had to dance bigger to fill the stage and execute our technique and emotion, so we could hold our own with a smaller team against teams that were much larger.”
As it approaches the final meet of its landmark campaign, Branford is looking to break even more ground at this week’s New England Championship. The Hornets have won the hip-hop title at the regional meet three of last four years and took home the jazz title in 2015. Now, the team will try to capture both the hip-hop and jazz crowns at New Englands for the first time in the same season. The meet takes place at Enfield High School on Saturday, March 4.
“It’s anybody’s game,” said Coach Montano. “We usually do well at regionals and get first or second, but we’ve never been able to take a double title at regionals, and so we’re hoping to achieve that this year.”