Teacher launches club for young majorettes

About 20 girls toting metal batons arrive at Hedges Elementary on June 26. The Treasure State Twirlers have a week left to practice before their debut at Kalispell’s Fourth of July parade.

Instructor Jessica Louk calls the girls’ attention.

“Majorettes, make sure you have your baton,” Louk says, telling them to line up on the stretch of road behind the school.

Nine-year-old Acaydia Kinsey picks up her baton and heads toward the group. Her mother, Cherylynn VanDale of Kalispell, follows.

“She’s told everybody about the parade. She was super excited to show grandma she was following in her footsteps,” VanDale says, noting that Kinsey’s grandmother had been a majorette.

Louk stands before the group, which range in age from kindergarten through fifth grade. The Treasure State Twirlers have been meeting since May.

“Are you guys ready? Excited?” Louk says, her high energy setting the stage for the day’s practice.

“We want to be smiling — pretending today is the real thing,” she says giving some reminders. “So we want to have teeth showing. We want to make sure we have our hands on our hips unless we’re doing the moves. We want to have nice, tall knees pointing, right, when you’re marching.”

In a back row, Kinsey gives a thumbs up.

“Nice and high, elbows and chin up, right,” she says before starting the routine that includes moves such as the figure eight, helicopter, flat-hand spin, cane and neck roll.

“Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. March in place; figure eight, two, smile, four, five, six, seven, eight. Neck roll, two, three, four, toss, six, seven, eight,” Louk says.

The girls quickly tuck the batons underneath their chins, then look up, releasing them. The batons roll down their outstretched arms. With a pop of their forearms, the batons fly into the air as the girls reach out, grabbing them with both hands.

“Spin, arm out, nice and straight, five, six, seven, eight. Cane, whip it, good, smile, turn, six, get ready for helicopter,” she says between quick breaths.

The girls hold the batons at both ends, with arms outstretched above their heads before bringing it downward in a twisting motion like the blades of a helicopter. Bringing the batons upward, they hold them on their shoulders. Letting go, the batons roll down their backs where they are supposed to catch them with their hands. Some batons drop, but the group is quick to pick them up and continue.

At the end of the routine, Louk gives the command, “bippity, boppity, boo,” as she brings her baton up and downward, pointing it like a magic wand. The girls catch their breath before practicing again. This time around Louk watches, dashing between the rows to help fine -tune their form.

“Lookin’ good, lookin’ good,” she says bounding back to the front.

Eventually, it’s time to turn the music on.

“Mother hens try to keep your chicks in line,” Louk says referring to the middle row, which is tasked with helping make sure their row is straight.

Ten-year-old Isabel Presnell, who serves as one of the mother hens, looks quickly left and right then, smiling broadly, begins to march. Not far behind her, 7-year-old Emily Nguyen cheerfully smiles while looking down at an outstretched arm to make sure it’s straight.

They make it to the end of the road and then move over to a roomier grassy field where they go through the routine a couple more times before practice is over.

Presnell’s favorite moves are ones that involve twirling or spinning the baton, such as the flat-hand spin.

“Basically she first told us we’re mixing brownie batter,” Presnell says, holding her arm straight out, then turning her wrist. “They look really cool and you can go fast or slow and they really work out your arm.”

The same holds true for 7-year-old Emily Nguyen, who doesn’t pause when naming her favorite move.

“The flat-hand spin. I can do it really fast,” Nguyen says, demonstrating. “One day when we just learned this I couldn’t do it, but after I just started doing it.”

Louk, who will be teaching at Rankin Elementary in the fall, learned how to twirl a baton around age 7 or 8, when she discovered a woman at her church taught lessons. Louk went on to join a majorette team at Libby High School. When the majorettes disbanded her sophomore year, Louk stepped up to assemble her own team, and continued performing at parades, half-time shows and community events.

Louk says she gravitated toward baton twirling because of the skills it teaches in stage presence — garnering the audience’s attention through confidence and poise. She is also teaching her daughter, 6-year-old Olive, how to twirl. Two key elements of twirling as a team of 20 is practice and unity.

“All those skills you learn in marching,” Louk says.

Louk plans to continue teaching baton twirling lessons and performances throughout the year. A fall session with begins Sept. 4. Students will meet weekly for approximately 13 lessons. Cost is $128 and includes a T-shirt. Pre-registration and payment is due July 11. To register, or for more information visit http://treasurestatetwirlers.weebly.com.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.