Grant Union Gold dancers Alyssa Catalani and Lilly Paddock perform in the High School Jazz Division at the Hearts in Motion dance competition on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024, at Pendleton High School.

The Grant Union Gold dance team danced its way to a gold medal in the jazz competition and a pair of silver medals in pom and traditional dance at the Thurston Cabaret Dance Competition on Saturday, Mar. 2, at Thurston High School in Springfield.

The event was the team’s final competition and comes one week after Grant Union Gold earned a trio of top four finishes in the same categories at the Hearts in Motion dance completion at Pendleton High School’s Warberg Court on Saturday, Feb. 24. Grant Union Gold left Pendleton with a second-place finish in the jazz competition, third in pom and fourth in traditional dance.

The Hearts in Motion competition featured Grant Union Gold’s unofficial sister program, Pendleton’s Rhythmic Mode dance team, and served as a fundraiser to help offset costs of the Pendleton team’s travel to the state competition on Friday and Saturday, March 15 and 16, at the Salem Pavilion. Teams from kindergarten all the way up to high school took part in the competition. Teams from Hermiston High School, Milwaukie High School, Lincoln High School, Pendleton High School and Grant Union High School all performed at the competition.

The competition was one that Grant Union Gold had to participate in to qualify for the state competition. In order to qualify, each team must have five or more dancers performing a routine sans penalties that lasts between two and three minutes.

“They can do, like, a safety penalty or a costume penalty — there are all sorts of penalties they can give you and if you get one of those, (the routine) doesn’t count,” head coach Ashleigh Romero said. “Our Pendleton was the big one where we qualified because we had all the markers we needed with no penalties or anything like that.”

The Thurston Cabaret Dance Competition was a one-day event at Thurston High School in Springfield that served as the final performance of Grant Union Gold’s routines before the state competition.

“That was the last one they offer until state, and this weekend is a blank weekend that they do on purpose so we can stay focused for state,” Romero said.

The Thurston Cabaret Dance Competition did come with a few weather complications, however. Snowfall prevented some judges from attending the event, which made livestreaming the competition necessary.

“It was good,” Romero said. “We got our first-place trophy because we’ve wanted one all season, but at the same time, the judges didn’t get the full effect of what we were trying to put on the floor.”

For the first time in two years, Grant Union Gold’s six dancers will head to the state dance competition March 15-16. Two of those dancers, seniors Alyssa Catalani and Hailey Mecham, will be performing with their Grant Union Gold teammates for the final time at the state competition.

As class 2A’s only dance team competing following the COVID-19 pandemic, the team will be facing off against schools from all over the state regardless of classification at the state competition.

“We’re considered 2A, but so many dance tams in Oregon after COVID have dropped their program or don’t have enough (team members) to compete, so now we dance 1-4A,” Romero said.

Even then, Romero said there are times when 5A teams will be combined with the 1-4A teams because there simply aren’t enough teams competing anymore.

“Dance is definitely having a hit after COVID,” she said. “A lot of the 1-5A teams are really suffering, and even at the state championship event in two weeks, a lot of our divisions — like our traditional, pom, hip-hop — will all be combined with 5A because there just aren’t enough 1-4A teams going.”