Dining with the Dance Team

Most of us associate November with feasting on turkey and all the fixin’s, and with giving thanks. For a group of students and parents at , however, November also means spaghetti, meatballs and a lot of hard work.

The spaghetti and meatballs were served up on Saturday evening, at the KOHS dance team’s annual spaghetti dinner. Team coach Megan Kamberis described it as one of the ways the team raises funds for its trip to JAMfest Dance Super Nationals, a national dance competition held in Covington, Kentucky, each February.

Scores of people came out to the dinner to enjoy the food, interact with the team and enter raffles to win prizes. Although the event took place on only one evening, the hard work didn’t start-or stop-there.

According to Kamberis, one of the main ingredients of the dinner was the volunteerism of team members’ parents, who stewarded donations and prepared the meal.

Parents garnered foodstuff donations from local businesses, including , Turner Dairy, Giovani’s, Breadworks and Jamieson’s Restaurant.

Raffle items were donated by Pizza Hut, Scoglio’s, Pittsburgh Sports Club, Atria’s, Olive Garden, Starbucks and A&J Nails, and by team parents and families.

Jim Harrod was one of the parents who prepared the meal. Harrod runs a deli at Carnegie Mellon University and an eatery at Fox Chapel Yacht Club. He said that he volunteered his service and skill for the sake of his daughter, Morgan, a KOHS junior and dance team member.

While Harrod acknowledged that he, and other parents, put a lot of effort into the event, he said that his hard work was nothing compared to that of the girls on the team.

In addition to helping with the spaghetti dinner, the 21 members of the dance team have a few other things on their plates during the school year. They perform at several basketball games throughout the season, participate in the KOHS talent show, vigorously practice their routine for JAMfest and work on raising funds for their benefit as well as for the benefit of others.

The girls will give back to the community by sharing their art during the Gifts of Dance and Other Offerings charity performance slated to occur on Dec. 3, at Baldwin High School. The performance is offered through Dance Workshops by Shari, where Kamberis works as an instructor, and the KOHS dance team will join other area talent to benefit Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.

The girls also will hold a Hip Hop Clinic from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 11, at the KOHS gym to raise money for JAMfest. The clinic is open to girls in first through eighth grade. Participants will learn a dance and perform it at the end of the clinic. The $20 registration fee includes lunch and a T-shirt.

What makes the clinic unique, Kamberis said, is that it is the dance team members who will be teaching the young girls their moves.

We talked to team co-captains Lauren Schumacher, senior, and Kelsey Hays, senior, to find out what teaching the clinic has been like in the past. 

Schumacher, whose post-high school goal is to attend Clarion University for speech pathology, said she has enjoyed teaching the young girls and that it feels good to get them interested in dance and have them look up to her.

Hays said teaching dance is a lot different than learning it. She really appreciates learning instruction, she said, and she wants to study athletic training at Slippery Rock University.

Kamberis, a dance major who graduated from Point Park University, said the clinic usually draws approximately 70 participants and everyone involved has a blast.

For more information on the clinic, email Kamberis at mkamberis@verizon.net or visit www.keystoneoaksdanceteam.weebly.com. Registrations are due by Nov. 28.