A sport that combines artistic grace and competitive athleticism has rarely been an option in state-sanctioned Minnesota high school athletics; however, this year, St. Paul Academy and Summit School added a new sport. Athletics is a long-standing tradition at SPA and the addition of a new sport is exciting for Spartan students and administrators. The Cretin-Derham Hall co-op dance team combines four schools: SPA, Cretin Derham Hall, Mounds Park Academy and Minnehaha Academy.

This year, SPA only has one dancer on the team: Echo Ernst. Ninth-grader Ernst has been dancing since she was two years old, but this is her first year dancing for the SPA co-op team. “It’s super fun to dance for school and exciting that I get to do more school sports,” she said.

Ernst thinks the co-op fosters connections and new friendships that strengthen the team’s culture. “My favorite part about dancing with another school is that I’ve met so many new people that I will now continue to hang out with and I’ve made so many connections,” she said.

Although the dance team is a collaboration of four schools, Ernst thinks its culture makes it a fun and supportive environment. “We placed really well in a competition and the next practice, the coaches got us Crumbl,” she said.

Ernst explains that she likes dancing for the school team because it offers a different experience than when dancing for her studio. “The dance team is way more about being all together while dancing and sharp, clean lines, while the studio is more improv and you can dance in your own style a little bit more,” she said.

She also mentioned that dancing is largely about the connections between dancers. “I think the co-op adds connections through schools and friendships; it also brings different talent from different people,” she said.

The co-op dance team will continue in the future and Ernst hopes to see more SPA dancers enter the program. According to Ernst, the co-op dance team continues to be a welcoming community to dancers of many skill levels and a place to make connections and friendships with dancers from schools around the Twin Cities.