“I kinda like blacked out, I just danced,” says Bryan Cruz-Majano, a junior at Pacific Grove High School. He describes the Homecoming Rally Partner Dance as “way harder than I thought, [it] gives a lot of perspective to the effort put behind Breaker Girls.”
A tradition since 2005, the Partner Dance is organized by the Breaker Girls, Pacific Grove High’s dance team. Each dancer invites a friend who is not on the team to perform alongside them at the rally. Tatum Madrid, the team’s coach, explains how the custom started. “It was my coach’s idea back in the day. It was just really her way of getting people excited about the rally, the school sports. It was a way to get everybody together,” she adds. Tatum describes how it used to be just football players dancing with the team, but over time it has become more inclusive. “It’s not just girls with guys, anybody can do it.” The partner dance is a fun way to incorporate all students into the rally, whether they do art, play water polo, or march in the band. Each partner’s experience on stage is different.
For some, like Amy Kim, it was easy and smooth, “I was just having fun, I was grooving,” while partner Aidan McFarland-Walton found it “very nerve-wracking.” Pepper James describes how she felt nervous at first, but when she looked at the crowd and saw everyone smiling, she realized people were just happy to be there and watch. The Breaker Girls explain how much they enjoy teaching their friends, with dancer Avery Brubaker exclaiming, “I thought it was super fun because we get to share our dancing skills and the joy of dance with other people who don’t do dance.”
More than just a fun halftime performance, the Partner Dance celebrates community, courage, and creativity.
