Sophomore Bella Malatesta is a member on the varsity dance team. While not dancing at RHS, Malatesta participates in studio dance at Adagio Dance Company.

“At RHS, dances are involved in varsity football games and soccer games. Practices are a lot of hard work and you have to be very dedicated to do it,” Malatesta said. “We stretch and then either learn game dances or clean up the dances we already know during practices.”

Because there is only one team level, varsity, getting onto the team can be competitive. There are girls from all grade levels represented.

“I can learn a lot from the older girls on the team because they have more experience than me,”  Malatesta said. “But I also get to help out the younger girls on the team when they need it.”

The girls attribute much of their success to their coach, Kaitlyn Palazzola.

“My coach is amazing. She has high potentials for our team and pushes us to be the best that we can be,” senior Gab Guerra said. “I know I can trust her and talk to her about anything also which is really nice. Having an amazing coach makes dance team that much more fun.”

This is Palazzola’s third year coaching. 

“Coaching the Rochester varsity dance team is extremely rewarding,” Palazzola said. “It definitely keeps me on my toes, and is very time consuming and tedious, but being able to see amazing results at competitions, respect from their school and peers continue to grow and seeing the smiles on their faces by the end of the season makes it all worth it.”

Freshman Emily Nagy has been dancing for most of her life and is very excited to dance here.

“I have been dancing ever since I was three,” Nagy said. “But my first year here at RHS is going great and I’m really enjoying it and excited for the new memories to come.”

Guerra says that the girls from different grade levels come together and bond through hard work.

“I love my teammates we are all like one big family,” Guerra said. “I like the fact that this year everyone who is on the dance team loves it, takes it seriously and wants to be an awesome team because everyone gives 110 percent.”

Palazzola thinks working with the dance girls is the best part of her day.

“Coaching at the high school is a completely different dynamic, but the past two and a half years have been a big learning experience for me,” Palazzola said. “Coaching has quickly turned into the part of my day and week that I look forward to the most thanks to the wonderful team that I get to lead.”