As a young girl, Academy of the Holy Angels senior Kaitlyn Lack of Oradell watched the Olympics with her parents and dreamed of representing her country on a national team. This month, the four-time national champion varsity dancer became eligible for the Olympics by committing to the Rutgers University Dance Team.
AHA Varsity Dance Team Coach Jenny Sweet explained that dance team and cheerleading events have been provisionally added to the Olympics. She shared, “Rutgers has been selected to represent the USA in April for the International Cheer/Dance Union. Rutgers has asked Kait to begin training with them, and Kait will be a member of TEAM USA NATIONAL!”
Sweet added that Lack will receive all the perks of Rutgers University’s Division 1A athletic program.
Lack was recruited by Rutgers, where she plans to dance and study exercise science.
“I am very excited to have the opportunity to experience the World Championship of Dance with the Rutgers Dance Team,” Lack said.
“My parents signed me up for Saturday morning dance classes when I was three years old,” she recalled. “I was asked to join the competition team at my studio when I was in first grade.”
Lack has been competing, and winning, ever since. “I have won numerous regional competitions as a soloist, as part of a duet/trio, and as a member of various dance teams. I was the Starbound National Junior Soloist Champion in 2014.
“I’m most proud of my accomplishments on the Holy Angels Varsity Dance Team,” she continued, pointing to the tremendous dedication and hard work the team put into winning four consecutive UDA National Championships in small varsity hip hop. AHA brought home its fourth title earlier this month.
“The Holy Angels Dance Team is nationally recognized as one of the best high school dance programs in the country,” Lack said. “My Holy Angels teammates and my coach, Jenny Sweet, inspire me every day to be the best I can be.”
Founded by the School Sisters of Notre Dame in 1879, the Academy of the Holy Angels is the oldest private girls’ school in Bergen County. While AHA is steeped in Catholic tradition, this prestigious high school serves young women from a broad spectrum of cultural and religious backgrounds. Over time, thousands of women have passed through AHA’s portals. Many go on to study at some of the nation’s best universities, earning high-ranking positions in medicine, government, law, education, public service, business, arts, and athletics. The Academy’s current leaders continue to further the SSND mission to provide each student with the tools she needs to reach the fullness of her potential—spiritually, intellectually, socially, and physically, by offering a first-rate education in a nurturing environment where equal importance is placed on academic excellence, character development, moral integrity, and service to others.
