Rochester varsity dance kicks season off as grand champions

ROCHESTER HILLS — In late September of this year, Rochester High School’s varsity dance team captivated the TikTok world with its pep assembly performance to AC/DC’s hit song “Thunderstruck.”

The video currently has nearly 2 million views and over 330,300 likes, but it was only a small sample size of what the Falcons’ varsity dance team could bring to the floor.

On November 10 in the Dance Team Union Detroit Regional at Rochester High School, the team’s season-opening competition for 2024-2025, lightning escaped the bottle as Rochester surged throughout the competition.

Not only did the Falcons capture first place in both the small (11 dancers or fewer) varsity pom category and large (11 dancers or more) varsity jazz category, it was also crowned grand champions for its pom routine, tallying the highest score of the day. The Falcons’ jazz routine earned a “Technical Excellence” award as well.

Rochester’s jazz routine had the second-highest score of the day while junior Brielle Bates earned first in the solo competition and received a “Wow Moment” award for her routine. Rochester swept the top three solo spots with Luke Loftus placing second and Shaila Buhat third.

“All of our hard work has paid off,” Bates said. “Our saying this year is ‘better than yesterday,’ and it’s just great to see the hard work pay off. We’re not done yet. We still have so much work to do and we’re striving for our next competition.”

Bates, a first-year varsity dancer, has been a studio dancer at Suzette’s Masters of Dance in Shelby Township before finally taking her talents to a different side of dance.

Similar in sports to the age-old comparison of club/travel versus high school, there always seems to be a different feeling when you’re representing your school and competing alongside your classmates.

For Bates, this season, which is still very young, has already blown away her expectations for varsity dance.

“It’s honestly the people,” Bates said. “I’ve grown relationships with people on the team, and now those are my new best friends. Dance team is just so different from what I’m used to because I’ve been a studio dancer since I was 5. It’s just been something so fun to experience.”

The Falcons continued their momentum-building start to the season with another impressive showing at Dance Force Xpress Michigan’s Dance Team Championship Nov. 17 at Lake Orion High School, adding another first-place finish in varsity elite pom while taking second in varsity elite jazz.

Rochester was also crowned grand champions for the second straight competition with its pom routine tallying the highest score of the day. Buhat also finished fifth in the solo competition.

What sets them apart from everyone else? Assistant coach Andrea Arnold said the team’s work ethic is immeasurable.

“They’re just really hard workers,” Arnold said. “They work really well as a team and they’re committed to being the best they can be as a team, and they work really hard to achieve that.” 

Arnold and head coach Lisa Niskar both took over the team in 2019, and it’s just been a constant progression for the Falcons every year since.

“We’ve just been slowly building it up and building it up, but we’re really excited about this year,” Arnold said.

Aside from all the talent Rochester possesses, one of the things that Rochester can lean on is its veteran dancers, holding seven dancers with three or more years of varsity dance experience.

Senior Eva Teknos serves as the team captain while seniors Megan Myrick and Jillian Sieber are both assistant captains for the Falcons.

Throw in a few first-year varsity dancers with years of dance experience, and Rochester has a team of 12 dancers who can compete with the best around.

Rochester still has three competitions left in the season with Dance Team Union Detroit II at Dakota High School (Jan. 11), Dance Force Xpress Winter Wishes at Clarkston High School (Jan. 25), and Dance Team Union Nationals at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida, (Feb. 14-16) still on the calendar.

Nationals is where it all comes together and the best teams from around the country compete, but it’s also where Rochester has had recent success, tallying a runner-up finish in pom (2023) and jazz (2024) the past two seasons.

With the way they’re pushing themselves, Rochester expects another strong showing at nationals this season.

“Practices can be hard, but we all know where we need to be and what we need to accomplish at the end of the day,” Bates said. “If it’s a good or bad practice, we always have that dedication knowing that we want to bring home a national championship this year, we want to do good in our competitions, and we want to do better ourselves and prove to everyone else that we’ve been working.”

“Thunderstruck” brought a massive jolt to the start of the season, but two successful competitions already show Rochester means business.

“That (‘Thunderstruck’) was one of our biggest moments this year,” Bates said. “It was amazing!”

 

Members of the Rochester varsity dance team:

Eva Teknos (senior), Megan Myrick (senior), Jillian Sieber (senior), Alina Patalan (senior), Shaila Buhat (senior), Amelia Sandoval (senior), Ellery Maras (senior), Victoria Brunell (junior), Brielle Bates (junior), Luke Loftus (junior), Brooke Dieterle (junior), Shelby Lawrence (sophomore).