Carlsbad CA— Carlsbad High School’s 12-time National Champion varsity dance team, the Lancer Dancers, will be performing in their annual holiday dance Showcase Thursday, Dec. 7 through Saturday, Dec. 9, on campus at the Carlsbad Cultural Arts Center. The shows begin at 7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and a Saturday matinee is also offered at 2 p.m.
The Lancer Dancers will perform a variety of routines in jazz, hip hop, tap, lyrical and other genres that they have been working on this school year. With so many different dance and music styles, this year’s Showcase offers something for everyone. Showcase tickets will be on sale at www.lancerdancers.com and are $15.
Other dance groups invited to perform include the Carlsbad High School Xcalibur Junior Varsity Dance team, Carlsbad High School Dance PE 1, 2 and 3 classes and the Aviara Middle School Dance Team. Adding levity to the program, the “Mancer” Dancers represent a longstanding Showcase tradition. Each year a new group of Mancers (male students) are invited to perform with the Lancer Dancers, and it’s always a crowd favorite.
Another highlight is the performance by the Junior Lancer Dancers, a group of young girls ages 5 to 12 who take weekly classes given by the Lancer Dancers during the fall. It is their opportunity to perform what they have learned over their 9-week session.
“This special annual program is a great opportunity for family, friends and the community to experience firsthand the elite level of talent the Lancer Dancers work so diligently to achieve,” said Lancer Dancers Booster Club President, Terez Anderson, whose daughter is on the team. “The girls have been working very hard in recent months to perfect their own routines and refine the choreography for the Junior Lancer Dancers in preparation for Showcase.”
Proceeds from the Lancer Dancer Showcase will help offset the costs associated with the Lancer Dancers’ lodging and travel to Orlando, Florida to compete in the Universal Dance Association (UDA) National Championships. UDA Nationals is the nation’s premier competition for high-school dance squads, with approximately 500 different teams from public, private and performing arts high schools competing each year.
The Lancer Dancers have earned 12 National Titles in the jazz or hip hop categories and just this past February won their latest National Champion Title in hip hop and placed third in Jazz in the nation. The team has received national television exposure on ESPN year after year, reaching up to 90 million viewers and serving as teen ambassadors for the City of Carlsbad.