The Oregon School Activities Association dance and drill state championships this weekend will mark the final high school performance for Shining Stars senior co-captains Ginnah Hopper and Tori Cropp — and they plan to make it count.
Hopper described the team’s smaller seven-member roster this year as tight-knit and pointed to confidence as the key ingredient heading into Saturday’s performance.
“I think the team has a great bond … we all get along very well,” Hopper said. “I think confidence is the biggest thing going into state with going out and performing.”
Cropp acknowledged the team is still polishing the finer details of its routine as the competition approaches.
“We’re having fun but we’re also feeling the pressure,” Cropp said. “We haven’t done much cleaning with the dance that we have … the little movements, making sure they’re the kind of movements that we want.”
Philomath is scheduled to perform at 4:25 p.m. Saturday in the Traditional category at the Salem Pavilion. Doors open at 2 p.m., with introductions at 2:45 p.m. and performances beginning at 3 p.m.
Hopper said she feels the pressure but that the coaches have put together an effective approach to competing at state.
“I feel like the coaches are pretty good at making practice time fun,” she said. “We do work hard and we get our stuff done but I think the coaches are very good at just making it so we don’t always feel stressed out.”
Both co-captains have been part of the Shining Stars for all four years of high school.
“I’ve grown up loving dance and the overall environment of just being involved in a team,” Hopper said. “So when I started high school, I immediately knew that I wanted to join.”
For Cropp, dance is something of a family tradition. Older sisters Karina, Class of 2019, and Ruth, Class of 2021, both competed with the Shining Stars, and younger sister Kaihautu, a sophomore, is on this year’s team.
“When I started doing dance, I was like a toddler,” she said. “I was doing ballet classes and stuff. There was this little gym that we would go to and I would do ballet there.”
This year’s routine carries the theme “Luminary” and features an all-instrumental score built around violins — a deliberate departure from the music with lyrics that dancers often rely on for cues.
“It’s kind of like a contemporary lyrical-style routine,” Shining Stars assistant coach Katelynn Romviel said before practice Thursday. “Our routine this year actually is all instrumental — it’s all violins. So that has been a big challenge for the kids this year because oftentimes it’s easy to rely on the words and so not having that has been an extra push for them. It has been cool to see them rise to the occasion for that.”
With the heavy preparation work behind them, Romviel said the focus heading into state week has shifted toward keeping the mood light and the energy high.
“The main goal for today is just doing confidence-building stuff and actually it’s more just fun because we have been putting in the hard work the last couple of weeks,” Romviel said. “We’re going to have a little bit more lighthearted type of thing to get people excited.”
Romviel also wants the experience to extend beyond the competition floor. The team plans to go out to dinner and has additional surprises in store for the dancers.
“I feel like a big emphasis that we’re gonna try to have at state this year is for it to just be like a really fun experience,” she said. “The main thing is to just make it really a fun, memorable experience.”
Cropp said the team is embracing the state experience. The Shining Stars plan to arrive early enough for additional activities — including a swimming outing with the Newport team.
Asked to describe this year’s Shining Stars, Romviel noted her appreciation for how the team’s members balance dance with other commitments throughout the long season.
“They all do sports and activities outside of dance and that is always really impressive to me because the length of the season is so long and they still commit to practice and doing other activities that they enjoy,” Romviel said. “We try really hard to carve out space for that so they’re able to do multiple things at once.”
Along with Cropp and Hopper, the rest of the team includes junior Ash Pike, sophomores Marri Best, Kaihautu Cropp and Ella Hammonds, and freshman Mirielle Cupp. Jordyn McMullen serves as head coach. Assistants include Stefanie Larson, Michelle Park and Jadyn McMullen. Isla Smith is the team manager.
All seven team members are expected to participate in the drill-down competition, which allows up to nine competitors per team.