A row of girls pirouette forward as a popular dance song echoes through the empty freshman cafeteria. The music suddenly stops, allowing Sarah Wolff, head coach of the winter dance team, Coquettes, to tell one of the dancers that her turns are too slow. The girl spots one of her fellow dancers and after understanding the melody, the team starts the dance over. Wolff stops the music again to tell another dancer that her transition from one spot to another looks rushed and that she needs to work harder to be able to hit her mark. The music starts up again; this time Wolff tells the girls to improve upon the sections of the dance they have received criticism on. This process continues until the practice ends and the team has run through three of the different dances the Coquettes know.
Coquettes is the CHS winter dance team that performs during the halftimes of home men’s and women’s basketball games. The Coquettes feature skills in jazz, hip-hop and technical dance. The dancers exhibit their talents through turns, leaps, flexibility and performance qualities.
According to head coach Sarah Wolff, Coquettes is a smaller, more selective team, as compared to Charisma, the fall dance team. She said the team

features more skills, such as turns and even flips.
Like Charisma, Coquettes is not considered a sport at CHS, but it receives  many of the same benefits as the other sports teams.
According to Wolff, the team is ranked academically but cannot letter despite the team’s intense training that is comparable to that of varsity teams. Some dancers on the team said they think that the Charisma and Coquettes dancers put in enough effort to receive the benefits given to many CHS sports teams, like lettering.
Ally Vaughan, Coquette dancer and senior, said, “I think we practice as hard and as often as the activities that are considered sports, so we should be able to letter.”
Josephine “Josie” Brown, Coquette dancer and senior, said many of the dancers belong to other local dance teams, so the distinction of a sport is not important.
Brown said, “It’s nice how Coquettes and Charisma (don’t) compete because it gives us the chance for all of us at different studios to combine and be one team and work together.”
Wolff said, “We’re not just getting out there and shaking it. We’re doing

actual dance skills and tricks and things that are really hard.” However, Wolff thinks the status of the dances teams in the school is not important as long as they perform.
Brown said the Coquettes work hard to stand out. She said,  “(Coquettes is) focusing on bringing out a lot of technique this year to the season because it’s the varsity team and we want to make it different from Charisma.” Brown said the team is also practicing routines for a basketball court instead of the soccer field Charisma performs on.
Although only girls who have been on the team previous years choreograph Charisma dances, every member of the Coquettes contributes to the choreography.
“To choreograph, we usually bring ideas that we find from YouTube or ideas we have from dance classes we have previously taken or from our studio dances,” Vaughan said.
Coquettes is a “turning team,” a ballet term for a rotation of the body similar to a pirouette.  The team set  the goal of including innovative choreography in their performances this season. The team is also including stunts in their dance routines, especially the one it is preparing currently. The routine will involve many hip-hop inspired moves and flips.
Wolff said the team features many three and four year dancers, making this year’s Coquettes one of her best teams. “We’ve got a squad of 16 (and) a lot of really strong veterans in our front two rows this year,” said Wolff.
The Coquettes’ unique skills and intensity define their role at CHS as one beyond cheerleading or any other sport.
Vaughan said, “Dancing is a different activity than cheerleading in general because they do stunts, tumbling, and are at the games to cheer the team on, but they do not actually dance. We are at the games to show our talents and what we like to do while representing the school.”
Wolff  agrees the team is a necessary part of CHS.
“I hope that (the student body does) see some of the effort and time the girls do put in coming up with those tricks because all the choreography is student done,” Wolff said.
“We are here for entertainment and to put on a good show.”