Boysare wearing the same clothes, dancing in unison, and commanding the attention of all the staff members and students for the next three minutes they are performing. Is it poms, cheer, or flag team? No, these are the Woottonettes.
The Woottonettes are a selective and elite group of dancers, made up of male students from every grade level. Members get chosen by the seniors within this group in the beginning of the school year and after they have been selected they maintain their enrollment in the group for the remaining years they have left in high school.
The Woottonettes perform at different events throughout the school year: pep rallies, POTH. While the boys perform, the poms also deserve some credit. Usually two to three poms help to choreograph, run practices and coordinate the musical soundtrack for the performance. Poms have helped year after year, and have been able to make sure the performances are entertaining to watch and complicated at the same time.
The dances involve iconic pom moves such as a kick line, ripple moves and a grand finale. Members of the group love it because “[they] love to dance. It’s very expressive and helps connect with other people,” senior Trent Folk said.
Woottonettes has run into trouble with administration and other staff members in recent years. The first problem that administration has pointed out is the clothing that the members choose to wear for the performances. Depending on the event that they are performing at, the Woottonettes coordinate a similar outfit that all the members have to wear. For their first performance of this year, at the homecoming pep rally, the boys chose to wear white shirts and blue or black shorts. Many of the boys decided to cut their shirts so it looked like there was almost nothing covering them up. Each of the boys’ shirts looked slightly different, but all were equally inappropriate according to administration. Last year, administration also had a problem with the clothing that the group decided to wear for their POTH performance. The group wore suit jackets, with nothing underneath, a tie and shorts. The administration felt that this attire was inappropriate considering along with students, there were also parents and other people in the community in attendance. As a result of this performance, it was questioned if Woottonettes would be allowed to perform again this year. “I’m not ready to say whether we are or aren’t going to have Woottonettes, I am really concerned about why do we have them,” Principal Kimberly Boldon said.
Along with the inappropriate outfits, administration is not happy with some of the dance moves seen in the performances. They feel that some of the moves are too vulgar and raunchy to be seen at a school event, and hope to see this change if Woottonettes are allowed to perform throughout the rest of this school year.
The fate of Woottonettes is up in the air right now, but hopefully a conclusion will be made soon because while some may want the dance group to be finished, others love to watch their performances. “I hope Woottonettes are not canceled this year because they are funny and entertaining to watch during events,” senior Gabi Menconi said.
Rachel Berman
Staff Writer
