Dancers compete at AHS

Published 12:00 am Thursday, March 22, 2001

Austin will host 1,400 girls from grades 4-12 this weekend for the 2001 Just for Kix dance competition.

Thursday, March 22, 2001

Austin will host 1,400 girls from grades 4-12 this weekend for the 2001 Just for Kix dance competition.

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The competition starts at 11 a.m. in the Competition Gym at Austin High School and lasts until 5:30 p.m. The dance teams are coming from middle and southern Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin and South Dakota. Area teams will be attending from Blooming Prairie, Adams, Albert Lea, Kasson, Rochester, St. Ansgar, Iowa, and Mason City, Iowa. Each team will dance from three to four minutes, back to back of each other.

Austin has held the Just For Kix competition for the past four years. Marnee Rohr has been the coordinator in Austin for the past six years.

"Austin is a good place to have the competition," Rohr said. "It is centralized for all the teams attending. There are three other Just For Kix competitions held throughout the year. They are in St. Cloud, Brainerd and Fargo, N.D."

The judges come from all over. Last year, the coach for the Minnesota Vikings cheerleaders was the judge. Teams are judged on projection, skills-form, precision, execution and overall expression.

"This year for the first time the teams are performing their routines facing the audience in different directions," Rohr said. "All the dance routines were choreographed by Cindy Clough, founder and executive director of Just For Kix. She puts the routines on video and the instructors learn them to teach to the dancers. We try to make sure each school does a different routine."

Rohr started dancing with Just For Kix when she was 7 in Brainerd. She is the field coordinator for this area and oversees the programs and guides other directors.

Just For Kix sponsors a summer camp every year at Austin High School. This year the camp will be held Aug. 1, 2, and 4.

Call Sheila Donnelly at 434-2234 or e-mail her at sports@austindailyherald.com.