The Adel-DeSoto-Minburn Girls Dance Head Coach Jana Morrisey describes what she’s learned as a coach compared to being a dancer.

Morrisey, from Tipton, Iowa, tells Raccoon Valley Radio that she danced in high school and then in college at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake. She focuses on a specific area that she works on with her dancers but kind of dismissed it when she was a dancer in school.

“Practicing with facials and performance energy. I know that I struggled with that concept, I was like “oh I can turn it on when I get out there, but I have learned over the years that like we have to practice for it, otherwise we can out there and like the crowd looking at you and the nerves and the pressure that comes down overtakes some of that and so if you don’t practice for it, you’re not ready for it.”

Earlier this month, ADM qualified to the National Dance Alliance Championship in Orlando, Florida for the first time in program history. The Pom team placed 13th out of 22 and the Jazz team was fifth out of 18.