Heat radiated from the lights that bore down on her face full of makeup. She held her position tightly, while a small smile danced across her lips. The crowd stayed silent as her and the rest of the dancers prepared for the music to blast through the speakers.

A tradition that all Leander ISD schools share is iDance, a dance recital where all the district dance teams come together and put on a show for everyone to see. It’s an opportunity for all the girls to get together and get to know each other while doing something they love, according to senior captain Paige Carter.

“It’s kind of like a bonding factor,” Carter said. “We are all different teams and get to come together for this show and it’s a fun experience.”

The Celebrities brought a tap routine, a Michael Jackson themed jazz dance and a hip hop dance choreographed by Nolan Padilla, who choreographed “Step Up 5”. Plus, they also included an officer opener, officer contemporary and the finale for the seniors.

“Out of all the dances, my personal favorite, was our hip hop routine because it was choreographed by Nolan Padilla,” Carter said. “It was crazy that he was here and it was a really a cool experience to able to work with him on that.”

The preparation for iDance started at the beginning of the school year, with 7:45 a.m. practices. Also, since Padilla was there to teach the girls, they had to stay after school till 9 p.m. to learn the dance routine, according to senior first lieutenant Baylie Lamontagne.

“Seeing all our hard work pay off was definitely one of the highlights of the night, because we came in early every morning,” Lamontagne said. “Getting to watch it from a video afterward and to see how well it looks, that was probably the best part. And, definitely senior finale was really fun because we get a special part that we get to do to close the show.”

While iDance has been going on for quite sometimes, this year each captain stated that the Celebrities have better unity and confidence in each other, which is why performed so well.

“I think this iDance was really cool because I feel like all the teams continue to improve every year so I feel like every year we reach a higher level of technique,” junior second lieutenant Mackenzie Lawrence said.

Traditionally, iDance is on a Saturday at the beginning of the year, but this year the district opted out of that and instead had it on two separate school nights, Wednesday and Thursday. While Wednesday had a good turnout, all dancers agree that Thursday was the best day.

“The second day was my favorite because I felt like on the first day we were nervous and it was our first time performing these routines,” junior social officer Sierra Taylor said. “On the second day though, the nervousness was gone and our confidence was boosted from the previous performances. The crowd was also amazing and responded well to all the dances.”

iDance is not only for the Celebrities; JV also participated in iDance along with some Middle School captains.

“The highlight of the night was dancing with all the JV teams,” sophomore Allison McCarthy said.

While this night was special to all grade levels, it carved itself a special place the hearts of seniors as a night to remember.

“iDance was a really fun experience,” Lamontagne said. “As a senior it was really different than the past two years because everything is the last time and it’s really fun to get to dance with all the other teams because you don’t get to see them as much. So it’s cool to see what they have been working so hard on because we know how hard we have been working. iDance was definitely a success.”