After countless hours of morning practice and football games, Blue Brigade held their annual Spring Show, Embrace, with two performances on Friday and Saturday night to honor the senior members and all the work the drill team has put into this year. 

The team put on routines from football season as well as dances from competition season, and a few newly choreographed pieces from officers. There were several guest performances from cheer, kiddie clinic, Blue Brigade moms and dads, senior boys and the rising freshmen joining next year, making the production a vibrant community event. The Class of 2024 Blue Brigade captains, Sophie Leung-Lieu and Kylie Reeves, also returned to the stage to emcee the event.

To commemorate senior team members, each one was given a solo and a speech to share with the audience and sign off from their time on Blue Brigade. At the end of the show, a slideshow of pictures was shown, chronicling the team’s memories from the past season. The show included 32 dances total and was full of emotion as each senior danced for the last time with the team. 

For this week’s Tuesday Top 10 we are excited to share the amazing performance put on by Blue Brigade and their seniors.

Gallery • 14 Photos

David Winter

Senior Mark Sanchez dances to “Teach Me How to Dougie” during the senior boys’ dance in the first act of the Blue Brigade Spring Show. Sanchez said the leading role during this section of the dance fell to him because he was the only one who knew how to dougie. “I tried to teach the other seniors, but they just kind of wouldn’t learn,” Sanchez said. Sanchez has known about the senior boys dance for the past couple of years and was looking forward to participating when it was finally his year to join in. “It’s a McCallum tradition, and all my friends were doing it,” Sanchez said. “So I decided I wanted to join. Just getting to be with my friends and having a good time with them.” The senior boys had practices once a week led by the Blue Brigade seniors in preparation for the final performance this weekend. “Our coaches were on us all the time, 24/7, making sure we got our moves down,” Sanchez said. “They were very strict.” Sanchez even said at one point the boys were restricted from talking during practices.  “We had to lock in on dancing,” he said. “It helped us stay focused and learn the dance faster.” Overall, Sanchez said the show went great and the Blue Brigade had put it together well. “They put in a lot of work over the past couple months,” Sanchez said. “Just being able to be part of it— I was really happy that we had a dance in it.” Caption by Camilla Vandegrift. Photo by Dave Winter.

BYE BYE BAKER: Senior Kiki Baker embraces friends in the audience after her final Blue Brigade show. 

Baker said she knew her final Blue Brigade show was going to be emotional, but she didn’t expect it to hit quite so hard.

“I picked that solo song because a friend who lives in another country showed it to me,” Baker said. “It just stuck with me. I kept thinking, ‘I wish I was back in freshman year.’ Time’s flown by, and it honestly hurts that it’s over.”

Baker expressed how much she appreciated her friends and community who’ve been by her side through it all.

“Leaving Blue Brigade feels like leaving my family,” she said. “It’s been my community for so long, and now I’m kind of scared to move on without them.”

Baker explained how much she’s grown during her time on the team, not just as a dancer but as a person.

“I’ve learned how important friends are. I seriously love everyone on this team,” she said. “There’s this quote us seniors keep saying: ‘Don’t be sad it’s over, be happy that it happened.’ We say it every time one of us starts to feel emotional.”

Despite feeling emotional about leaving her community behind, Baker said memories made it all feel worth it, and the show gave her the kind of sendoff she’ll remember forever.

“I was looking through old pictures from freshman and sophomore year, and it just hit me,” she said. “It’s been really sad knowing it’s all coming to an end.”

Caption by V Overstreet. Photo by Dave Winter.

ONE FINAL SHOW: Class of 2024 graduates Kylie Reeves and Sophie Leung-Lieu serve as MCs at the spring show. As per recent tradition, the previous year’s captains, Reeves and Leung-Lieu, returned to contribute to one final show. 

“I had a lot of fun seeing Kylie and everyone again,” Leung-Lieu said. “It was definitely special to see the team doing so well.”

While Leung-Lieu was used to spring shows, being an MC was not as familiar.

“It was Kylie and my first time performing without actually dancing,” Leung-Lieu said. “It was sweet watching everything from the sidelines.”

Leung-Lieu said this show was especially special because it will mark her last event participating with Blue Brigade. 

“It’s bittersweet that this is my last event with Blue Brigade,”  Leung-Lieu said. “Blue Brigade was a great experience and a big part of my life, so I definitely wouldn’t be the person I am without my four years on the team.”

Caption by Jojo Barnard. Photo by Dave Winter.

CLOSING OUT FIRST ACT: During Blue Brigade’s performance this weekend, the audience was treated to an electric intermission number that marked a pivotal moment in the show at the close of its first half. This high-energy routine wasn’t just a highlight for the crowd, but a special moment for the dancers.

Junior Jill Hoffman, a junior lieutenant on Blue Brigade, reflected on the experience, noting that this particular piece held extra meaning. 

“That was our intermission dance, so it closed off the first part of the show,” Hoffman said. “All the officers do a special little mark before the team comes off.”

Hoffman, along with Captain Catherine Haikola, choreographed the routine, a process that started with a strong sense of musical intuition. 

“We start by listening to the music and making sure we get the vibe right,” Hoffman said. “We also make sure to include tricks that highlight what the team is really good at.” 

Once choreographed, the duo taught the dance to the rest of the team, refined the moves through cleanup sessions, and brought the polished performance to the stage. Hoffman said the season, now winding down, has been an emotional one. 

“It’s been super fun,” Hoffman said. “It’s super sad the seniors are going to leave, but I’m also really excited to step up and lead the team more next year.”

With another season around the corner, Hoffman said she’s already preparing to make her senior year a memorable one for Blue Brigade.

Caption by Zev Zent. Photo by Eva Sanchez.

PASSING THE TORCH: At this year’s Blue Brigade Spring Show, Senior Captain Catherine Haikola handed the captain role to Junior Chloe Seckar-Martinez. Haikola gave a speech to Seckar-Martinez.

“This dance was the first moment I realized that everything was real,” Seckar-Martinez said. “I hadn’t accepted the fact that next year Catherine and the other seniors were going to be gone, so hearing Catherine’s speech to me was one of the happiest and saddest moments of my life.”

Haikola guided Seckar-Martinez while being a best friend and a captain.

“She taught me that being captain doesn’t mean being the best dancer, but it means guiding the team, making decisions with the best interest of the team in mind, and supporting everyone,” Seckar-Martinez said.

Next year, as captain, Seckar-Martinez wants to make a positive impact on the team. Her goal is to be a good role model for the team and someone everyone can come to if they need anything inside or outside of practice. 

“I am also looking forward to working with such a strong officer line next year and am excited to help lead the team next year throughout our seasons,” Seckar-Martinez said.

Seckar-Martinez wants to help people positively find their passion for dance.

“I think winning competitions is a great bonus, but it isn’t worth taking away people’s happiness or joy in what they are doing,” Seckar-Martiez said.

She looks forward to leading the Blue Brigade to a fun and successful season.

“When doing this solo, I wanted to make the team proud of who their captain will be next year, and with everything I do, I hope to continue making them proud just as Catherine did this year,” Seckar-Martinez said.  

Caption by Josie Linton. Photo by David Winter.

JUMPING JUNIORS: The class of 2026 performs their class dance entitled “Rihanna Kick” at the Blue Brigade spring show. It is a tradition for the team for each class to get to choose a dance from the past and perform it together. 

Junior social officer Olivia Pittman says that her class has learned how to work together the past three years when curating their class dances.  

“We do class dances in order to get a chance to bond with our grade level,” Pittman said. “It is a fun chance to bring back old dances that we have done and get to perform in smaller groups.”

The team had originally performed this dance at the homecoming pep rally back in October, and the juniors decided to bring it back for their class dance for the spring show.

“In order to switch it to be a class dance we had to create new formations for the six of us,” Pittman said. “We also had to condense some choreography based on groups to work for a smaller amount of people.” 

Throughout the year, the team has gotten to bond with each other  due to the immense time they spend together working on their dances. 

“The highlight of the show for me was getting to dance with this year’s team,” Pittman said. “Our team this year had a super close bond and spring show is always a good way to end a year.”

Every senior who is on the team also gets to perform a senior solo and say a speech, as a chance to dance for a final time as a part of the team. 

“I loved getting to watch the senior solos and listen to their speeches,” Pittman said. “This tradition is one of my favorites because you get to see how much the seniors have grown and the impact the team has had on them.”

The team performs a multitude of dances from pep rally dances, contest dances, traditional spring show dances, and more. Out of all the dances, Pittman said her favorite was the contemporary dance the team performed. 

“My favorite dance that I was in was team contemporary because I love the choreography and the song for that dance,” Pittman said. “I think the song having a nostalgic feel to it fits perfectly in spring show because a huge portion of the show is dedicated to the seniors performing one last time. This dance is very fun to do, and I think that the visuals in the dance are super innovative and interesting.”

Caption by Carson Duncan. Photo by Dave Winter.

BB OUT WITH A BANG: Kalliope Haltom performs her final senior solo at Saturday night’s performance of Blue Brigade’s spring show, Embrace. Haltom’s solo was a contemporary piece to ‘Falling Slowly’ by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova.

“I was nervous because I had barely finished choreographing my solo and had never done it for an audience, but I’m really happy with how it turned out,” Haltom said. 

Each year’s spring show gives every senior the opportunity to perform a solo, as a chance to say goodbye to their time in the Blue Brigade. 

“It was so fun to get to perform one more time, and say bye to Blue Brigade and all my friends,” Haltom said.

Caption by Sienna Martens. Photo by Dave Winter.

PUMPED FOR POM: Junior Lieutenant Jill Hoffman performs the team’s pom from the past contest season at the end-of-year spring show. This was the opening dance to the second act of the show, which is the section of the show where the team normally performs their traditional blacklight. This year senior lieutenant Smith Bohls and junior lieutenant Chloe Seckar-Martinez decided to combine their team pom and blacklight to create one dance. 

“For this spring show, halfway through at a beat drop we turned off the lights and turned it into a black light dance where you could only see the vibrant poms,” Hoffman said. 

While the team performed many different dances in the show, some were from their past contest season. These dances were worked on for many hours by the officers and line members to hopefully please the judges. 

“During contest we are preparing to be meticulously graded on many aspects of our performance by professional dance judges,” Hoffman said. “During spring show, we are having more fun and performing for friends and family, so it’s a little less pressure.”

Hoffman is one of the team’s junior lieutenants this year and has enjoyed working alongside her other officers, with whom she has bonded for the past three years on the team. 

 “The highlight of this show was being able to honor our seniors,” Hoffman said. “Also to perform with the ’24-’25 officer line for the last time.” 

With spring show closing the 2024-2025 season, the team is already beginning to work for the next year.

“I am looking forward to the new opportunities we have next year and to dance at my last Taco Shack,” Hoffman said. 

Caption by Carson Duncan. Photo by Sienna Martens.

LAST TIME ON STAGE:Senior Kiki Baker performs her senior solo to “The Scientist” by Coldplay for the Blue Brigade spring show. 

“I couldn’t stop tearing up, the memories I made in the last four years on the team just kept playing in my mind as I was dancing my solo,” Baker said. “It made me so sad to see it end so quickly.”

Although bittersweet, Baker said she loves how the spring show brings the team closer together and creates lots of memories to look back on.

“It wasn’t until my last moments that I realized how hard it was going to be to leave,” Baker said. 

Moving on to college, Baker said she is going to miss dancing as well as the Blue Brigade squad. 

“Not only was I leaving the team, it was also my last time dancing,” Baker said.

Despite feeling sad about leaving, Baker looks forward to seeing what’s to come after her time with Blue Brigade.

“There’s this phrase that us seniors like to say to each other, ‘don’t be sad that it’s over, be happy that it happened,’ and that has helped me stay strong as I step out of the team and into a new chapter,”  Baker said.

Caption by Josie Linton. Photo by Daniela Di-Capua.

FRESHMEN’S FINALE: Freshman Makenzie Brin performs in the freshmen country kick dance that the team learned during football season. 

As this is her last performance as a freshman, Brin said she’s excited to help the newest members of Blue Brigade settle smoothly onto the team. 

“One piece of advice I would give to the new members is to practice the dances at home or whenever they have free time in order to help prepare them for football and competition season,” Brin said. “After my first year on the team, I have learned that hard work and dedication pays off.”

Brin explained how getting to know the entire team and creating bonds with everyone is one of the best parts about Blue Brigade. 

“My favorite thing from the spring show was getting to hang out with my friends and spend time with people I haven’t in the past, like the seniors and the newest members,” Brin said. “Team bonding is really important to me because it allows us to get to know more than just the people in our grade.”

Next year, Brin said she is looking forward to continuing building bonds with her teammates, specifically on their planned trip to Hawaii next spring break. 

Caption by Harper Maxwell. Photo by Frank Webster.

UPCOMING OFFICER: Next year’s junior lieutenant, Emma Simon, hits her final pose in the team’s contemporary competition dance. 

This piece was one of Blue Brigade’s highest scoring dances during competition season, so Simon was very excited to perform it in their spring show.

“Throughout the dance, our emotion is supposed to shift from sad to happy, which makes the piece a lot more dramatic and impactful,” Simon said. “I loved performing, but also hanging backstage to send off the seniors was super fun, it was very bittersweet.”

Being an officer next year, Simon has a big role to fill. She explained that she has always looked up to her officers and now she’s excited to do the same for future members.

“I can hopefully be a role model and someone the team can look up to,” Simon said. “I want to try and be helpful for my teammates while still working on my own technique and teaching skills.”

Overall, Simon said she feels she has had a wonderful second season with Blue Brigade and is looking forward to next year as junior lieutenant and integrating the new members onto the team.

Caption by Harper Maxwell. Photo by Dave Winter.

DAD DANCE: Senior captain Catherine Haikola and her teammates perform along with their dads for the spring show. For Haikola, this was her last ever Blue Brigade spring show, and getting to dance one last time with all of her teammates made a lasting impression on her career as a dancer at McCallum.

Haikola enjoyed getting to dance with her dad and break up the different team routines with a fun one accompanied by parents.

“It’s really fun to learn it together; my dad always acts quite serious about our performance,” Haikola said. “It was a really special moment to get to dance with him up on the stage once more, and I think he really liked this year’s choreography.” 

Her personal favorite routine was the team contemporary, to the song “When we were young” by Adele, a play on the seniors’ last performance. 

“The song and the choreography make it very fun and easy to portray lots of emotion, and I love how fluid and graceful it feels to do the dance,” Haikola said. 

The show was especially memorable for her, as it represented the closure of her time on Blue Brigade.

“It felt so special to get to dance with the team one last time, especially since I have gained so many close friends through Blue Brigade,” she said. “It definitely felt sad while I was dancing to think about how it was the last time I got to dance with my best friends, but it was also very special to get to pass on the role of captain to Chloe.” 

As a captain, this performance felt significant to Haikola, marking the pride she has in her team, and paying off in her last performance.

“Getting the honor to lead them was so special, and it felt surreal to think that my time on the team was over,” she said. “It feels bittersweet that my high school dancing career is coming to an end because I have learned so much and met so many incredible people.” 

While Haikola isn’t committed to a college for dancing, or majoring in it, she still plans to dance for fun on her own time, and will miss her teammates.

“Even though some days it was hard to wake up early for practice, it was always worth it to get to chat with my friends before practice started,” she said. 

Caption by Priya Thoppil. Photo by Dave Winter.

Senior Mark Sanchez dances to “Teach Me How to Dougie” during the senior boys’ dance in the first act of the Blue Brigade Spring Show. Sanchez said the leading role during this section of the dance fell to him because he was the only one who knew how to dougie.

“I tried to teach the other seniors, but they just kind of wouldn’t learn,” Sanchez said.

Sanchez has known about the senior boys dance for the past couple of years and was looking forward to participating when it was finally his year to join in.

“It’s a McCallum tradition, and all my friends were doing it,” Sanchez said. “So I decided I wanted to join. Just getting to be with my friends and having a good time with them.”

The senior boys had practices once a week led by the Blue Brigade seniors in preparation for the final performance this weekend.

“Our coaches were on us all the time, 24/7, making sure we got our moves down,” Sanchez said. “They were very strict.”

Sanchez even said at one point the boys were restricted from talking during practices. 

“We had to lock in on dancing,” he said. “It helped us stay focused and learn the dance faster.”

Overall, Sanchez said the show went great, and the Blue Brigade had put it together well.

“They put in a lot of work over the past couple months,” Sanchez said. “Just being able to be part of it—I was really happy that we had a dance in it.”

Caption by Camilla Vandegrift. Photo by Dave Winter.

FLIPPING OUT FOR SPRING SHOW: Sophomore Opal Rodgers aerials alongside teammates junior Chloe Seckar-Martinez and freshman Kyeri Hickman during the opening number entitled “Someone in the Crowd.” 

This dance was choreographed by first lieutenant Gaby Alvarado and junior lieutenant Paige Mitchell and was performed both nights of the show by the full team. Rodgers explained that the opener is a crucial part of the show for the team and that they worked really hard to clean it. 

“The opener is the audience’s first impression of the team which is really important because you want to draw the audience in,” Rodgers said. “It gets them excited for the show ahead.”

Together, Alvarado and Mitchell put different sections throughout the dance like turns, leaps, partner work and ariel in order to make the dance exciting for the audience. 

“These parts are meant to highlight each dancer’s strong suits,” Rodgers said. “I was chosen for the aerial part because it was in my solo, so it was something the officers knew I was capable of doing.” 

Another traditional part of the spring show for the team is the end of year slideshow, which is made by the social officers to conclude the show with photos and videos. 

“The highlight of the spring show for me has to be watching the slideshow,” Rodgers said. “I loved getting to reminisce on all the memories of our past year together on the team.” 

As one of the newly established junior lieutenants for the 2025-2026 season alongside junior Emma Simon, Rodgers says she is looking forward to taking on more responsibility as an officer. 

“I am definitely most looking forward to getting to be an officer next year,” Rodgers said.  “I can’t wait to step into that leadership position that I’ve worked so hard to get.”

Caption by Carson Duncan. Photo by Daniela Di-Capua.

CHEER CAMEO: During the Blue Brigade’s spring dance show, the McCallum cheer team took the stage with a high-energy performance of their own. 

Sophomore Estella McCloskey, who was featured in the routine, reflected on her experience performing one last time this season.

“I was basing my flyer Vivian, and we were doing a pyramid,” McCloskey explained. “That was for the spring show. It was really fun.”

Although the cheer team didn’t directly collaborate with the Blue Brigade, they still had the chance to share the stage and support each other’s performances. 

“We didn’t work with Blue Brigade for the routine, but we did get to watch their performance,” McCloskey said.

According to McCloskey, the team had performed the original routine before but made some changes to keep things exciting. 

“We got to perform it twice, so that was really fun, and we got to work on it,” McCloskey said. “We’ve done that routine before, but we changed the pyramid and the stunting a little bit.”

Reflecting on the performance, McCloskey said was overall proud of the outcome. 

“I think we all did good on this one,” she said. “It was our last performance of the season, so that made it feel even more special.”

Aside from her own performance, McCloskey said she enjoyed getting to cheer on the Blue Brigade girls as well. 

“I just had fun,” she said. “I liked getting to watch Blue Brigade right before we went on and seeing their dance. It was cool.”

While the cheer team and Blue Brigade don’t often perform together, McCloskey explained that they do occasionally cross paths, especially during football season.

“We kind of practice together before pep rallies and stuff,” she said. “Other than that, we don’t really do much together, but it’s fun when we do.”

Overall McCloskey said ending the season with an enthusiastic crowd and strong team performance was a highlight. 

Caption by August Gleason. Photo by Frank Webster.