The Chartiers Valley High School dance troupe knows how to choreograph the right moves for success, even at the national level.

The 11-member dance team at Chartiers Valley High School earned second place with its hip-hop routine at the national competition in Orlando, Fla.. It also advanced straight to the finals — a program first, said coach Riley Maghery — and placed 13th in the small varsity jazz category.

“We’ve kept improving and now we’re ranked second,” said team captain Sara LaCamera. “We’re constantly striving to build our name.”

The dance troupe was started by Renee Keil in 1985 and mainly did performances for school events, said co-coach Cathy Jenkins. Jenkins took over in 2007, and decided to have the group perform competitively in 2013.

“Ever since then, we’ve been learning and growing,” Jenkins said.

Students can take dance courses as a physical education credit. Another program, the Charvalettes, perform with the school’s showband during football and boys basketball games.

“There’s a lot of ways for people to dance at CV, which is awesome,” Maghery said.

The leadership of Jenkins and Maghery is another contributor to the team’s achievement. Maghery was a competitive dancer in college, and Jenkins, who retired from Chartiers Valley in 2020, brings experience.

But the biggest key to success, Maghery said, is the buy-in from the athletes on the dance troupe. In fact, the group’s routine was choreographed by alum Mackenzie Sherry.

“This team has been one of the most hardworking, dedicated and passionate groups,” she said. “They were ready to work their hardest and do their best. They were the true definition of a team.”

Jenkins agreed: “I’ve never experienced a Nationals like that, and it’s one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.”

Members must audition for the dance troupe. Tryouts are held in March and practices begin in May. The team attends a summer camp hosted by the Universal Dance Association and scored well enough to earn a bid for nationals.

The troupe also attended regional competitions. They placed second at a November competition in Michigan and won both jazz and hip-hop categories at a competition in Philadelphia in January.

The nationals performance was thrilling, LaCamera said. She recalled walking off the floor happy with the team’s routine.

“The feeling of knowing we did the absolute best we could was the most rewarding part,” Maghery said.

LaCamera said being on the team has also taught her things she’ll use for the rest of her life, like leadership skills, selflessness and teamwork.

“Being on this team has definitely shown me when you work hard at something, there’s no way you can go backwards,” LaCamera said.

Senior co-captain Carmela Buffone said the season was successful because of the team’s consistency.

“It’s challenging to hit tricks consistently, keep our energy high in every run, and especially hard to hold a top-3 national ranking several years in a row,” Buffone said. “But, we truly grew through these challenges during practice and became super consistent this year, which made us so successful. We made ‘consistency’ our word of the year to remind us to keep working hard no matter what. We even put it on a shirt.”

Buffone said the team has evolved throughout her three years on it.

“My first year, everything felt so intangible. Especially in the beginning, third place in the nation wasn’t even fathomable,” she said. “And to think we would eventually level up even more is so incredible.

“The team I joined sophomore year is so different from what it has become but my best friends have been by my side through it all. Alaina Ansell, Sarah LaCamera, and I are seniors now, and I couldn’t have asked for better people to be a part of this journey with me.”

Maghery said the sky’s the limit for what the dance troupe can do in future years.

“It doesn’t really feel like work,” she said. “We’re all passionate about dance and the program. It’s all worth it.”

The dance troupe will also perform its national award-winning routine at Chartiers Valley’s annual showcase May 9-11.

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