DanceFest, an annual fundraiser hosted by the Titan Poms that took place Jan. 28, reflected how the program has transformed over the years.

Titan Poms prepared and taught dance routines to elementary and middle school students to be performed during halftime of a varsity girls’ basketball game.

While the younger participants learned their routines, adult women participated in a jazzathon. The jazzathon is an event where the adults participate in a jazzercise class taught by Jazzercise of Glenview.

According to Kelli McDonald, JV Poms coach, trained jazzercise leaders to teach the jazzercise routine.

The program is hosted to raise money for Titan Poms, but it also hopes to inspire younger girls to eventually try out for Poms. Its  to help spread awareness of the Poms activities throughout Glenview and to help the Poms themselves.

“It gives the [Poms] a chance to participate in something that’s not competition-related to give back to the community,” McDonald said.

Many of the people associated with Poms believe DanceFest has progressed. According to both McDonald and Julie Smith, varsity Poms coach, the program was originally known as Junior All-Stars, which only focused on teaching the dance routine to the younger girls.

The name DanceFest was created when jazzercise was added to the program, a more inclusive term for the program since the Junior All-Stars are no longer the only aspect of the event.

According to Smith, the number of participants has increased over the years.

“When it started, there were very few girls […] We’d usually get 10 to 20 girls,” Smith said. “Then last year we had 50 students. [The program] has grown a lot.”

The program’s large size has helped it become successful in inspiring girls to try out for Poms.

Senior Casey Hamilton, co-varsity Poms captain, said she joined Poms because she participated in Junior All-Stars.

“I even remember being a part of a similar program that the GBS Poms offered when I was in middle school and how it influenced me to try out for the team,” Hamilton said.

Senior Maddie Kodros, co-varsity Poms captain, believes the program is important for recruiting girls.

According to Kodros, the programs allows the girls to experience what it is like being a Titan Pom because the girls stretch, work on technique, learn a dance and then perform it at a basketball game, which is a large part of what the Titan Poms dance team does.

Inspired by this year’s new emphasis on “girl power”, one notable change is that the younger girls’ performance will be at a girls’ basketball game instead of a boys’ basketball game.

“We usually get a huge crowd that night when the girls perform, so we’re trying to bring some fans to the girls’ varsity game,” Smith said.

Despite the changes of the program, the goal remains the same.

“The idea of getting kids into the building, learning the routine and performing it hasn’t changed,” Smith said.

Smith hopes DanceFest will keep evolving, and she wants the girls to continue to perform at a girls’ basketball game.