This week will see Mid-Prairie, Lone Tree and Highland dance their way to Des Moines for the Iowa State Dance and Drill Team Association state competition.

For the dance teams it will be the culmination of months of learning, practice and perfecting their routines to present their best version for the judges.

“I feel like this year we have a really strong team,” Mid-Prairie dance team captain Grace Mattes said. “The freshman this year are super impressive, and we have three super strong dances.”

Mid-Prairie’s other captain, Caitlin Kuenster, said the team this year has really great chemistry and that will be evident in their routines in pom, jazz and hip hop.

“It is kind of nerve wracking, because it’s the last chance to prove this is our team and how awesome we are,” Kuenster said. “I think it’ll be fun because we have a great group of girls this year that are really strong together.”

The work for their routines, each between two and three minutes in length, started this summer. After putting in a special dance they performed at halftime of the homecoming football game, the Golden Hawks got to work on their state routines.

“We go through and learn our dances on and on to the next one,” Mattes said. “After you have learned them it is just cleaning it up, running them and getting them to look good.”

Every practice is videotaped, allowing the dancers to learn from their mistakes and get another angle on their technique.

“You can totally go back and see how much it has improved,” Mattes said. “At first it is kind of sloppy and not looking good, but then now everything is super sharp and clean.”

Sharp is a word the Mid-Prairie dancers use often, something they want to be this Thursday and Friday.

“Our first dance is pom, it’s supposed to be really sharp and powerful,” Kuenster said. “Jazz is also like that where you need to be sharp and strong. Then hip hop is just having a lot of fun and we’re always having fun so it will be great.”

Each style is broken into classes containing around 10 teams. Last year Mid-Prairie took third place in pom, 10th in hip hop and fifth in jazz. This year they feel like they have the ability to improve on all of those.

There will be around 250 teams showcasing 600 routines over the three days of the championships this week. The teams all compete on the same rubric, with their dances scoring out of 100 total points.

There are 20 points for choreography including creativity, the fit of the dance to the category and how the dance visually looks. There are 40 points assigned to execution and how the dancers execute their technique. The final 40 points are split over degree of difficulty and showmanship.

Division I honors are given to teams achieving 75 points or more in their dance.

The competition is scheduled to the minute, with teams shuffling on and off to get everything done before the end of the weekend.

“Right before you go on is the worst, you’re so nervous and you’re like, ‘oh man am I going to nail it?’ Then after you’re just out of breath and tired and want to fall down,” Mattes said.

The Lone Tree dance team will also be competing in three divisions as well. They are coming off a division I rating and third-place finish in the jazz category last year.

“Our three routines have pushed our girls to learn new skills and techniques, and we are so proud of our team for all of the hard work they have put in,” Lone Tree dance team coach Elly Huston said.

Huston said they have been working since June on these routines and hope to see strong performances. They will be competing in pom, lyrical and jazz at the state competition.

Highland will compete in one category, pom, on Thursday.