Highstepper Camp Trains Tomorrow’s Dance Team

The dance team of tomorrow trained during the recent Huntington Booster Club Highsteppers summer camp in the J. Taylor Finley Middle School gym. About 20 girls who love to dance turned out for the daily sessions that stretched over the span of a week.

Participants ranged in age from second through ninth graders. “Each day the girls came in and warmed-up and stretched just like the girls do on the Highstepping team,” said Samantha Natalello, the Highsteppers’ varsity head coach who directed the summer program. “We also worked on their splits, jumps and their actual kick-line.”

The dancers learned various pom and dance moves over the course of the week. “They also learned a two-minute dance routine just like the Highsteppers do during their season, which they performed for family and friends at the end of the week,” Ms. Natalello said. “It was a great time and we enjoyed doing it!” Incoming Huntington High School freshman Leanne Daly served as a counselor.

The Highsteppers are Huntington High School’s competitive dance team. The Highsteppers have won numerous regional and national awards. They have participated in clinics with professional dancers and performed at halftime of a New York Knicks game.

Plans for a winter Highsteppers community clinic are being developed now. The recently completed camp was so successful that Ms. Natalello said she expects it to run again next summer.