On the weekend of March 5th, the PPCHS Latin Dance Team competed against different schools in the Battle of the Salsa Clubs competition. In this competition, different high school salsa clubs from Miami Dade County went head to head against one another, salsa dancing to win the Battle of the Salsa Clubs Trophy!

   The PPCHS Latin Dance Team went up against five other schools in the competition, including Ferguson High School, Mater Academy High School, Imater Charter High School, Terra High School, and Hialeah Gardens High School.

   Competing in the competition were seniors Nia Daniel, Brandon Garcia, Samanta Briceño, Andres Alvarez, Isabella Rodriguez, and Nicolle Sanchez, along with juniors Jorge Muñoz, Laisha Laracuente, Marko Barrera, Danelli Mejia, Christian Blanco, Tyler Pujals, Mariana Ardila, and Adam Abougendia.

   Juniors Jorge Muñoz and Laisha Laracuente are the PPCHS Latin Dance team’s head captains, working hard together to successfully motivate and lead their team.

   Before the competition, the team practiced for several weeks leading up to the Battle of the Salsa Clubs event. Jorge Muñoz, one half of the team’s head captains pair, says that practice was “kind of light” towards the beginning when the team was first learning the choreography.

   The team started practicing for the event in the middle of January, but as March 5th started getting closer, things started to heat up.

   “As we got closer to the date, everyone kind of started taking it a lot more seriously and putting their full attention towards me, trying to teach and correct things and all that,” Jorge says. “The last practice was very, very intense.”

   “We had to perfect what we had to perfect because this competition was no joke. We had to show out for our school,” says senior Brandon Garcia.

   Going into the competition, there were mixed emotions going on all throughout the team. For the most part, everyone felt a little bit intimidated by their competition, but were also very excited at the same time.

   Jorge says that the overall energy of the team before performing was very nervous. “We are here to have fun,” Jorge said, making sure to let the team know that there weren’t any expectations for them. “We were all nervous going into it, but we kind of broke that down and were just mostly excited at the beginning,” he says.

   After competing, the team was extremely happy to find out that they placed third in their division! There was a lot of hype and positivity given to the team by the other competitors, and the team was overall excited and very happy about their win.

   “This team is truly a family,” says senior Nia Daniel. “Although we were amazed by how good the other teams were, in the end we were just there to have a good time.”

   After all of the hard work that was put in, the team celebrated by having dinner together at Brimstone. The team got the DJ to play their song outside, and they danced together to finish off the night off!

   “It was a really good feeling. We felt very accomplished and we look forward to doing the same thing next year and having those bonding moments more often,” Jorge expresses.

   Congrats to the PPCHS Latin Dance team on their win in the Battle of the Salsa Clubs!