Getting in step with a spirited revival

MEMBERS OF THE Ozaukee High School dance team were photographed earlier this school year. They include (front row, from left) Lillian Koehler, Sarah Tinder, Bellasaria Rossey, Olivia Weiland, (second row) Reagan Johnson, Summer Koehler, Peyton DaMato, (third row) Clara Steinert, Hannah Lemke and (standing) Morgan Howard.

THE OZAUKEE HIGH SCHOOL dance team practices twice a week in the school’s new commons area. The team performed at four home football games this past season and will perform at home basketball games starting Friday, Dec. 6. Photo by Sam Arendt
Fans of Ozaukee High School football saw something this season that they haven’t seen for more than 20 years.
That would be an Ozaukee Warrior Dance Team.
The team performed at four home football games this season, including one game where they had to perform inside the school because of heavy rain, dance team coach Bonnie Steele said.
Not all the girls have dance experience, “but they’re doing fine and working very hard,” Steele said.
Practices are every Monday and Wednesday evening at the school.
Steele is a former cheerleading coach at Port Washington High School who also choreographed 28 musicals and swing choir performances there for 14 years. A Port resident, she retired in 2003 but connected with the Northern Ozaukee School District while helping with the Port Summer Theater program operated by the city’s parks and recreation department.
“I was helping do a Port Summer Theater a couple years ago and met an Ozaukee Elementary teacher who was in charge of their theater group and brought me in to direct their high school musical,” Steele said.
The teacher was Laura Vorwerk.
“I was pregnant with my first baby when I ran into her again a few months later and discussed how I’d need to step down from directing at NOSD,” Vorwerk said in an email.
“She expressed the desire to return to the director role. Becoming closer friends we discussed the need for NOSD to get a dance team started again too.”
Vorwerk said she tried to get an Ozaukee Middle School dance team going in 2013.
“But unfortunately, the numbers weren’t strong enough to continue,” she said. “It’s been quite a process in growing these programs but we are excited about NOSD’s future.”
After meeting Vorwerk, Steele was approached by a parent, Laura Steinert, who also suggested that Ozaukee High needed a dance team.
“Laura is the one who got the ball rolling for the dance team because her daughter and a bunch of students were interested when she realized I used to coach,” Steele said.
The team consists of nine girls at the moment. Steele hopes to grow that to 16.
“I have 16 uniforms,” she said, adding that she and the team have held brat frys, car washes and other fundraisers to pay for the outfits.
They plan to continue performing at boys’ and girls’ home basketball games beginning Dec. 6.
“The response has been very positive,” Steele said. “The superintendent said he is getting a lot of nice feedback and teachers have told me its another positive thing for kids to be involved in.”
“We’re having a good time, and the girls are working hard,” she said.
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Wisconsin’s largest paid circulation community weekly newspaper. Serving Port Washington, Saukville, Grafton, Fredonia, Belgium, as well as Ozaukee County government. Locally owned and printed in Port Washington, Wisconsin.
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