The Detroit Lakes Laker Dance team practices in the team hotel fitness center the night before the 2022 State Meet
Detroit Lakes, MN (KDLM) – The Detroit Lakes Laker dance team is in Minneapolis today to compete in the Class AA State Dance Meet.
“It still hasn’t really hit me,” said senior captain Tori LaFriniere. “It still doesn’t seem real. There was the possibility that Sections would be the last time I dance as a Laker. Now I’m mentally preparing to leave it all out on the floor at State.”
LaFriniere and the Laker Dance Team took third place at the Section 6AA Meet in Sauk Rapids on February 7th, advancing to the state meet for the first time since 2010.
“We all started crying when they announced our name (in Sauk Rapids)”, said junior Zoe Cariveau. “We all went crazy. They had to help us get lined up because we didn’t know what we were doing. We had never done that before.”
Detroit Lakes will perform ninth in the Class AA Meet today, with a scheduled start time of 3:04 pm. Regardless of what happens this afternoon, the Dance Team has a larger goal to accomplish today.
“When we started looking at songs for this season, Coach Ramsey and I decided on ‘Anyone’ by Demi Lovato”, said assistant coach Hailey Brower. “The song has an incredibly powerful, personal message for a lot of us. I have a long history of sharing suicide prevention and mental health awareness, and these girls do as well. After losing a classmate to suicide, it’s something that we felt on our hearts that this was the right team, this was the right moment to step up and share this message.”
“The song is about something all teenage girls can relate to,” says junior Amaya LeClair. “We all go through different situations. I think this song is a very important way to bring us all together and dance as one. When we’re all out there together on the floor, you forget about everything and just connect with your teammates. It’s a really cool experience and I’m very thankful for that.”
With Friday’s state berth, the Laker dance team has an opportunity to share their message by competing in front of a huge crowd at the Target Center.
“That’s exactly what we told the team heading into sections,” said head coach Britton Ramsey. “If you can do this, if we get to state then you have an even larger platform to tell your story and share this message. That was definitely on their minds when they walked on to the floor at Sections.”
“Right before we went on at Sections, we were all crying because the team that performed before us danced to a song that was played at our friends’ funeral,” says senior Peyton Eischens. “We were all very emotional and it was a very special moment. It’s crazy to think that now we get to dance at State. No matter what place we get tomorrow, we get to spread our message.”
“We’re coming into the meet with zero expectations,” says Ramsey. “We accomplished our goal. We’re at State. We told the girls that there’s no pressure, no expectations…anything they do is icing on the cake at this point. We want them to be confident when they go out there.”
Detroit Lakes will dance against Becker, Chicago Lakes, New Prague, Orono, Two Rivers, Benilde-St. Margaret’s, Mound Westonka, Faribault, Sauk Rapids-Rice, Holy Family Catholic, and Totino-Grace in the Class AA qualifying round beginning at 2:00 on Friday afternoon.
Latest News
