This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
03/09/2018 11:00 PMThe emotions were running high for the athletes on the Branford dance team when they competed for the final time this year at the New England Regional Championship. However, instead of getting overwhelmed by the moment, the Hornets channeled their emotions in a positive way and finished the season by delivering two excellent routines, including a heartwarming jazz performance that yielded Branford’s third regional title for that division.
Two weeks after claiming their fourth straight State Championship crowns in the Small Varsity Hip-Hop and Jazz divisions, Branford traveled to Bellows Falls, Vermont to compete among the elite dance teams in the region at the New England Championship on March 10. In the Hip-Hop Division, the Hornets took second place by scoring 252 points to finish just one point behind Fairfield Warde, which had previously won the Large Varsity Hip-Hop Division at the State Championship.
The last performance of the afternoon came from Branford in the Jazz Division, and the Hornets ended the day on a high note by totaling a score of 269.5 points to finish ahead of runner-up Braintree, Massachusetts (258) for first place. With the victory, Branford captured its second straight jazz title and third in the past four seasons at New Englands.
Branford’s jazz score was the highest total among the three divisions—Hip-Hop, Jazz, and Pom—at the New England Championship. Coach Jacqui Montano felt the emotional component of the Hornets’ performance was what ultimately propelled the team to the top.
“This performance had the most emotion of all their performances throughout the year. It was the last time they were dancing together for the season, and it was also the last performance of the entire competition, and so all their emotions came out,” Montano said. “We were crying, the girls were crying while they were dancing, the parents were crying, and I just think our emotional performance put us ahead of the other teams. It means everything, because you always want to leave the season making sure they all left everything on the floor, and that’s exactly what happened.”
The athletes on the 2018 Branford dance squad are senior captain Melissa Brennan, junior captain Lily Milici, fellow juniors Casey Allen, Hannah Antonino, Rachel LaBonte, and Chloe Lourenco-Lang; sophomores Samantha Esposito, Johnna Palmese, Bella Petrosino, and Juliana Robinson, and Olivia Vitale; and freshman Layla Redente.
For Brennan, the New England Championship marked the final occasion that she hit the floor to dance with her Branford teammates. Brennan, who is the only athlete in program history to win state championships in hip-hop and jazz all four years, was happy to cap off her career with the Hornets by helping them take another New England title in the Jazz Division.
“Coming home with the gold medal is just a symbol of our hard work,” said Brennan. “It makes it more bittersweet to say good-bye to something that’s been so special in my life these past four years, but it also makes it so much more worth it when you get what you hope for.”
Just like they had done at the National Championship and the State Championship, the Hornets performed to “Let It Be” by The Beatles for their jazz routine in the New England meet. Coach Megan Palluzzi was a member of team when Branford started performing jazz in 2010, and she said the Hornets have gotten stronger and stronger in that genre with each passing season. As time has gone by, Branford has shifted the focus of its jazz routine to a more lyrical style, and Palluzzi said the lyrics to “Let It Be” provide the perfect outlet for the Hornets to wear their emotions on their sleeves. It means a lot to Palluzzi to see Branford flourishing on the jazz circuit in recent seasons.
“When I first started, it was more upbeat and trying to perform it with the technique, but now that they’ve become more confident that they can do lyrical, they can both sell the story and have good enough technique to move it forward and make it strong,” Palluzzi said. “Jazz is always hard for us out of state and always pushes to work on our technique to better ourselves, and so taking home that victory made it even more sweet, because it’s something we’ve been working on. And we only had nine girls out there, and a lot of other teams had at least 15 or more, which you can do so much more with, and so to come out on top with nine girls on the floor is really special.”
Even though the Hornets came up one point shy of winning their fifth title in the Hip-Hop Division at New Englands, Coach Montano said they gave another high-energy performance and walked off the floor with no regrets. Branford has won a state title for hip-hop in 11 of the last 12 seasons and posted its all-time best showing at nationals with a sixth-place showing earlier this year.
“We were definitely happy with our performance. We couldn’t have done anything more,” said Montano. “We came as close to coming in on top as we could. Fairfield Warde is no stranger to the top, either, and so the fact that we were so close with them says a lot.”
Brennan said the Hornets put forth a pair of performances they could feel proud about at the New England Championship, thus closing the book on another banner campaign for the Branford dance squad.
“We put two really amazing performances on the floor to finish our season,” said Brennan. “And I’m really proud of everything we’ve accomplished this year.”