The Last Dance

Emma Schwickerath made it through her fifth Dance Showcase Saturday night but not without a few — OK, maybe a lot — tears.
“It’s always hard for me, especially because I know this is the last time the seniors will dance with us,” the New Hampton dance team coach said. “So before we go out with the seniors, I have my moment with the team and cry it out. It doesn’t mean I won’t cry out there, but a least I won’t be babbling.”
And the coach isn’t the only one who cries every year at the Dance Showcase; so, too, do the seniors.
“It was emotional,” dance team captain Jenna Murray said Sunday, the day after she danced for the last time as a New Hampton student. “I figured it would be, but it really hit us last night. We spend so much time together, it’s like you’re family. When I think of the hours and hours and hours I spent with my dance team teammates … I mean I’m almost crying again.”
For Murray, Kori Jirak, Faith Erdman, Ali McDonald, Isabel Pool and Viktoria Izdebska, Saturday night marked the end of a journey, yet it’s one, they say, that has taught them lessons that will last a lifetime.
For more on this story see the March 19 Tribune.