The nine members of the junior varsity dance troupe stand motionless, heads lowered, as the powerful first chords of Lady Gaga’s “Applause” thrum through the mirrored practice room. When the pitch begins to ascend, the dancers look up, raise their hands and walk forward, freezing again as the vocals cut in before they transition into a fluid, well-practiced routine.

The junior varsity dance team has been practicing routines such as “Applause” to rehearse for their upcoming shows. The girls will perform this number as well as “Let It Snow” at the Santana Row tree lighting on Nov. 17, along with high school vocal group Downbeat and the middle school dance groups High Voltage, Showstoppers and Dance Fusion. The junior varsity team will also perform both songs at Christmas in the Park at the Plaza de César Chávez in San Jose on Dec. 1, an event that Harker troupes have never appeared at before, and only “Let It Snow” in the annual school-wide holiday tour on Dec. 11.

Rachelle Haun, junior varsity dance instructor, plans for the dancers to be able to perform well both personally and as a team.

“We’re spending a lot of time working on their individual technique versus as an entire group, finding what each dancer needs to improve on,” Haun said. “Each dancer is so different, and they’re each encountering their own hurdles to where they want to be in dance.”

In contrast to the all-female, jazz-based junior varsity team, the all-male hip-hop group Kinetic Krew was only introduced this year. The boys danced to a remix of “Spooky Scary Skeletons” at the 65th annual Family and Alumni Picnic: Harvest Festival on Oct. 11. The team will also perform a dubstep remix of “Jingle Bells” for the Santana Row tree lighting, Christmas in the Park and the holiday tour. Kinetic Krew practices every Friday from 2:35 to 4:30.

Junior Aditya Dhar, a Kinetic Krew member, spoke about his experiences joining the team.

“I did dance in the middle school with High Voltage, and I know a lot of other people in Kinetic Krew did,” Aditya said. “Even if they didn’t, they were all boys who were really interested in hip-hop and had done dance before, and they thought it’d be really fun.”

He also expressed his opinions on the camaraderie within the team, commenting that many of his teammates already had experience with hip-hop.

“Normally the rest of the team just helps each other out with getting any new moves that we do,” he said. “I guess that we’re all pretty good friends with each other.”

The kinship within Kinetic Krew, where many dancers provide support and care for their less knowledgeable teammates, can be found throughout the school’s other teams, from students taking part in the annual dance production as a side pursuit to serious dancers on the varsity team. This care also extends beyond the realm of dance: upperclassmen can often be found providing study tips and extracurricular advice to their younger teammates and friends.

“It’s my second year on varsity, and all the members are just so loving and great,” Liana Wang (10) said. “I really feel like we’re not necessarily just a team; we’re in some senses a family, so it’s really nice.”

The varsity dance team will perform at the same shows as the junior varsity troupe, dancing to Kanye West’s “Homecoming” at Santana Row and Christmas in the Park and to a swing remix of “Jingle Bells” at all of their performances. In addition, seniors Ankita Sharma and Helena Dworak will travel to Orlando, Florida with Karl Kuehn, director of the upper school dance program, to perform in the Walt Disney Christmas Parade as well as enjoy the theme parks at Disney World from Dec. 2-7.

Ankita was selected to perform at the event because she is the varsity team’s captain, while Helena was asked to accompany her as one of five seniors on the team. At Disney World, they will be dancing to a Disney-provided Christmas song through the first attraction, Main Street, along with the other performers in the Minnie division.

Helena spoke about her experiences working with the varsity team, which she has been a member of since junior year.

“I love all of my teammates. Some of them I’ve worked with for a long time, others it has just been this year, but they are some of my best friends,” she said. “I hope the team continues to grow and bond together. We come from such diverse dance backgrounds, but the end goal is to dance as one team.”

Kuehn, who coaches the varsity team as well as Kinetic Krew, concurred with this opinion.

“We’re always looking for ways to develop the skills of our dancers,” Kuehn said. “We always hope that our teams bond and that they support each other, as team members and dancers and performers, and that they enjoy dancing as much as we love the art.”

Back in the practice room, nine teammates shake and twirl their arms and heads, spiraling between different formations in complete unison. The dancers flick their hands one last time and freeze in their concluding poses, training winning smiles on an imaginary audience as the tinny last chords of “Applause” fade away.

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