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Paynesville Press - January 22, 2003

Bullettes take second at NL-S meet dance

The Paynesville Area High School's dance team - now called the Bullettes - competed on Saturday in a tournament hosted by New London-Spicer High School. Twelve schools competed in seven classes and categories.

The Bullettes won a second-place trophy in the Class A high kick category against Albany, Tracy, and Renville County West.

Sixteen girls competed for PAHS: Ashley Ahrens, Holly Bennett, Katie Bertram, Laura Buermann, Amanda Burlingame, Valerie Callenius, Christine Christian, Rachel Hanson, Katie Holtzclaw, Nicole Schlangen, Kelly Schultz, Amanda Skalicky, Britanny Stang, Nichole Utsch, Jessica Virant, and Angie Wunsch.

The choreography was done this year by captains Amanda Burlingame and Jessica Virant.

The Bullettes are coached by Barb Werlinger and Jeanne Virant, who feel the team has a solid, competitive routine that shows well against other dancelines. The girls work without complaint two hours a day to syncronize and perfect movements. They practice in three places: the PAHS auditorium, the Paynesville Area Center, and a school gymnasium when available.

The team participated in a dance class session headed by Wendy Bennett to learn basic techniques like turnouts, spins, kicks, snappy travels, and other generalized movement. Their routine is always changing to adapt to critiques from judges.

Parents Barb Hanson, Ruth Schultz, and Deb Bennett have spent hours to fix and repair uniforms, gloves, and headbands. They also follow the team supplying water and food and using cameras to document the team's effort.

The Bullettes will be performing several times in January and February, including at halftime of the boys' basketball game against LPGE on Friday night. Their next competition will be the conference meet on Saturday at St. Cloud Cathedral High School.



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