Robert Cross Middle School Soaring Eagles team more than dance group

ALBANY — As Dougherty County schools near the Christmas break, students are performing holiday programs. Watching the performances on stage, however, many in the audience don’t realize how much work went into the event.

Last week at Robert Cross Middle School, a component of the annual concert that the performing arts departments will conduct at 6 p.m. Thursday in the school’s cafeteria, was hard at work. The Soaring Eagles dance team, comprising 23 sixth- and seventh-grade girls, was getting ready for the show, which also will feature the school’s drama department, drum line and chorus.

At first, the dance team’s rehearsal looked a bit like the proverbial herding of cats, but what actually was happening was the fine-tuning of a new routine for the show. The director of the team, sixth-grade math teacher Yalonda Jackson, only has to call out, “Eagles!” to get the collective response: “Soar!” Team members immediately assume their positions to begin practice, and the suddenly disciplined group is at attention.

Asked what it takes to be on the Robert Cross Soaring Eagles Dance Team, the ability to dance is the last requirement on the list mentioned by Jackson. First, a girl must be in good academic standing and have no behavioral issues that could hinder the team. A physical exam is required. Also important are teacher recommendations.

“Girls must be recommended by their teachers,” Jackson said. “Those recommendations play a huge part in making the team.”

Girls are expected to maintain the academic standards and behavioral attributes that earned them a spot on the team. Teachers communicate any misbehavior with Jackson. Grades and attendance are tracked. A dancer who falters is given several chances to recover her good standing through probation and/or temporary suspension. For the most part, such action is enough to get the girl’s attention, and she will be allowed to remain on the team.

“I’d rather have a girl that can’t dance than one who is not a team player,” Jackson said.

When school began in August, 45 girls tried out for the Soaring Eagles. Of those, 25 made the team. Twenty-three remain after one member moved away and a second left the group.

The importance of teamwork is understood by the dancers. As Soaring Eagle Josefina Saavedra noted, “We stick together, no matter what.”

Jackson said that after the girls have made the team and needed accessories such as shoes and bows have been purchased, some parents think “That’s all they have to do.” Following her mission statement, however, parents and team members soon find out there’s more to it.

“Yes, we are a dance team, and dancing is what we do,” Jackson said. “But being supporters of our community is who we are.”

And that brings up another aspect of being a Soaring Eagle that isn’t visible from a performance. So far this school year, the team has participated in three parades, including one on Veterans Day in Thomasville on a day the school was closed. They also performed for the Mt. Zion Head Start Fall Festival.

But the tiny dancers have done more behind the scenes. Just before Thanksgiving, the Soaring Eagles and their families collected about 500 non-perishable food items that were donated to the Salvation Army. As a Christmas project, the same students and parents collected nearly 60 toys for Toys for Tots.

“We do more than compete,” dancer Jovi Hall said. “We donate to the community, and we’re all like sisters.”

The team members have found themselves involved in a creative outlet that comes with life lessons.

Da’Nisha Luke said she went out for the team because she “thought it would be a fun way to spend her extra time during the sixth grade, as well as a good way to represent Robert Cross.”

Added dancer Katelyn Brown, “I have learned about honesty and to tell the truth. I have learned to behave myself and about friendship.”

This is Jackson’s first year directing the dance group. She came to Robert Cross from Albany Middle School, where she had taught seventh-grade math. Asked to take on the dance team, Jackson accepted the challenge and recruited her niece, Santaria Williams, to be choreographer.

With all the parades and school performances winding down for the 2016 portion of the school year, Jackson already has at least one other community service-related activity planned after the holidays.

“One of the girls on the team has a grandfather in a nursing home that has never seen his granddaughter perform,” she said. “He has a birthday coming up, and we plan to perform for the facility as a whole, all the while celebrating his birthday.”