Waking up for early morning practice, learning routines, and preparing for the upcoming Spring show, junior lieutenant Morgan Andrews starts every day with dance.

Since Andrews was little, she always had a passion for dancing.

“My mom put me in classes when I was around four or five and I fell in love with it and I have been in classes ever since,” Andrews said.

Like any other sport, a dancer must be physically fit.

“Physically, it takes flexibility,” Andrews said. “You have to be able to have open hips and be able to kick, run, and leap so you have to have powerful legs as well as good upper body strength.”

Warm ups, stretching, and running through the dances is normal during the average practice day.

“We check roles in our squads, which is a group of dancers that belong to a specific officer,”  Andrews said. “Then we warm up, kick across the floor, then practice technique across the floor, and during a show or a spring show season we’ll run and clean our dances.”

Silver stars have been preparing for the annual spring show since February.

“We start right away, learning all our seven extra pieces that will be in the spring show,” Andrews said.

Being a Silver Star is a big commitment,  so being able to do other extracurriculars is not always possible.

“I have given up a lot of theatre. I still like to dabble in between but I have to give up the class and I had to give up student leadership,” Andrews said.

Although she has given up extracurriculars, her future is dance.

“I do plan on pursuing a career in dance,” Andrews said. “More on the musical theatre dance side and performing arts and not so much drill team.”

Silver Stars director Courtney Allison has seen how theatre has impacted Andrews as a dancer.

“Morgan has taken on more of a choreographic role this year, not only with Silver Stars, but within the theater department,” Allison said. “This change in perspective forces any dancer to view themselves through a different lens, which in turn not only helps her, but the people that surround her.”

In the past weeks Andrews was named 2017-2018 Silver Star Captain.

“It is a lot of work and pressure to take in but I am really excited to lead the team of girls,” Andrews said.

Current Captain, senior Hannah Parsons has seen how Andrews makes the team strive for bigger.

“The best quality about Morgan is her ability to dream,” Parsons said. “She is always coming up with new ideas for the team and it’s great to have someone who wants to do something bigger and better than what we did before.”

Allison has noticed the way Andrews has changed as a performer.

“Morgan is an incredible performer. She puts her everything into making sure the audience is clear on her character,” Allison said.