Valencia High School’s varsity dance team has done it again by not only claiming the title of grand champions at West Coast Elite Dance Nationals and USA Dance Nationals, respectively, but also winning 11 national titles — one more than last year.  

Valencia coach Andrew Allan, who has been a coach at the school for seven years, discussed the growth that has influenced the team’s mindset, and vice versa. 

“I think this year, after our success last year, I kept myself grounded and was not letting myself do anything different just because we won in the sense that it got us to where we were last season. The girls and I really focused on being proud of what we presented on the floor, and we had a good time in the process, and I think that carried us to be successful without any added, ‘We have to win or we can’t lose,’” Allan said.  

Even with a “superstar team,” Allan and the 18 Valencia students were excited to “let go and have fun” — in part inspired by 2026 Winter Olympic figure skating champion Alysa Liu.  

Valencia varsity dance celebrates wins at USA Dance Nationals. Courtesy of Andrew Allan.

“I’m a huge fan of Miss Alysa Liu and the Winter Olympics, and during the whole Olympics was our competition season, so they both consumed my life. There were definitely moments that I started to second guess myself as a coach, and doubt would always creep in, but watching the Olympics and letting go has its benefits,” Allan said. “Any time that I felt like my feet weren’t on the ground, I would just say, ‘Remember that you’reproud of your team. You’re proud of yourself.” 

According to Allan, the team, which included seven seniors, enjoyed the dances, which was a driving factor in winning.  

“From my seniors’ freshman year to now, the program has grown exponentially — competition wise, atmosphere wise, and I have to give credit to those girls for growing the program with me. It’s cool to look back at their freshman year, and we were grateful to win one national title, and now we’re at a place where we’re winning a lot more than that,” Allan said. “At the end of the day, we don’t just do it to win trophies and to be successful. We all show up every morning at 7 a.m. because we love to dance and we love each other.” 

Having a successful regional competition season, the team had an arguably better one at the national level. Competing against other West Coast dance teams, the team snagged six national titles at WCE in Long Beach March 5-7, then an additional five titles at USA in Anaheim March 13-15.  

“It takes a village to be as successful as we are. So with myself, the director of our program, Catherine Greenberg, the parents, and, most importantly, the girls, I will never take full credit for the successes of this program because I know that it takes all of us together,” Allan said. “And what’s nice this year, specifically, it just felt like our keyword for the year was ‘together,’ and it just felt like we were all together.”