March 28, 2024

Baxter’s Nation chooses Grand View dance

Baxter senior Emily Nation has been dancing since she was 3 years old.

Fifteen years later, Nation continues to dance and will keep on moving in college as her future in the sport will be with Grand View University’s competitive dance team.

“As soon as I stepped on Grand View’s campus it just really felt like home,” Nation said. “I also have ties there as one of the assistant coaches taught at the studio I attended for numerous years.”

Nation started dancing at InMotion Dance Studio in Newton when she was 3 years old. She switched over to Kasey Leigh Dance Studio in Bondurant three years later. She was competing for the Kasey Leigh Dance Studio competition team at 7 years old.

By the time she reached middle school at Baxter, she was competing on the school dance teams and continued that through high school.

Nation was a captain of the Baxter High School dance team during her junior and senior seasons. She placed in the top 20 at the Iowa high school state solos this past year and also placed numerous times in the ISDTA competition.

With Nation’s dance studio, she placed in the top 10 in her solo routine at most of the competitions they attended.

Nation chose Grand View’s dance team over William Penn. She also had interest in St. Ambrose and Iowa State.

“I have always had a ton of respect for Coach Stacie (Horton), and the expectations she has for her team and really was wanting to challenge myself to keep improving,” Nation said.

Nation will join two other Jasper County dancers at Grand View. Colfax-Mingo’s Kelcie Steenhoek and PCM’s Alexis Kuecker are both attending Grand View in the fall as well.

“I know them from just being around locally and competing against them in sports,” Nation said. “It will be nice to have familiar faces around campus when I get there.”

Nation plans to major in Kinesiology with the hopes of becoming a physical therapist or moving into sports medicine.