Young coach teaches dancers to step to a different tune
By Shariq Torres CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Lisa Billings/Chesterfield Observer Coach Kelly Chrisco with Manchester High School dance team captains Kristina George (left) and Amanda Paulette (right).

Manchester High School celebrated its homecoming earlier this month, but for Kelly Chrisco, homecoming has a more literal meaning. Just barely out of high school herself, Chrisco has returned to her alma mater as the head coach of the school's dance team, "The Lancer Dancers."

"Sometimes I can't believe I'm in this school again," Chrisco said jokingly.

This is Chrisco's first year as head coach. In addition to her duties as a coach, Chrisco is also a full-time graduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University, striving for a master's degree in history. It's a lot to manage. It takes discipline to make it work.

And discipline is something that Chrisco stresses on her team.

As a member of the Lancer Dancers in 2000 and 2004, Chrisco was on a team that "was No. 1 in the state."

"We were very disciplined," Chrisco said. "We practiced five days a week. The dances were varied."

The previous coach, Chrisco said, didn't have much control over the members and let them pretty much do whatever they wanted.

"When I had to put my foot down, all of their 16-year-old attitudes came out," Chrisco remembers. "But they learned how I was going to run things. They caught up very quickly."

Kristina George, a senior, said the changes Chrisco brought were evident at dance camp this summer.

"Last year, the coach was slack," George said. "She had to tighten up the girls on the team."

"They had to learn that this is about dance," Amanda Paulette, a fellow senior, chimed in, "not a gossip time."

The girls on the dance team practice three times a week and learn a different routine each week. Most of the girls dance at studios and are in other school activities as well, Chrisco said. The constant drilling and structured practices have had an effect. Chrisco related that several members of the faculty have mentioned the dance team's improved quality.

Chrisco is planning a trip to an annual dance competition in Stafford County around January. She's also playing around with the idea of going to the National Dance Team Competition held at the Walt Disney Resort in Orlando. The issue though is money - something the team doesn't have.

"We're not considered a sport, so we don't get any funding from the school," Chrisco said. "We host a dance invitational here for the local schools and have the girls [on the team] work on that, so that brings in some money," Chrisco said. "We'd have to do a lot of fundraising to make up the difference."

In previous years, more than 50 girls would try out for the Lancer Dancers. The members were popular and got good grades. Everyone wanted to be like them. Freshmen on the dance team were a rare occurrence, George said.

"From what I heard the old teams were more strict. They ran every day," George said. "You would have to fight to make the squad."

But now interest has waned. "The school got redistricted, so now there are less people who would want to try out," Paulette said.

But Paulette and George are excited about their new coach and the direction the team in general is taking.

"We're glad we're on the team when it's rebuilding," Paulette said.