08/24/2026
This weekend, our elite placement team had their first ever “Elite Retreat”. This is something that we have been wanting to do for years! To kick off the season, we had a weekend full of classes, bonding, and dancing! Dancers arrived at 9 AM Saturday morning and put in so much time and effort to not only improve themselves, but to grow as a team! To say, we are proud of these kiddos would be an understatement!
 Some highlights of the weekend include-
💙 A Pom sideline class from alumni dancer and coach, Baylie Ruzicka and her teammate Haydn! Both are collegiate dancers at UNK!
🩷 Classes from our amazing staffers Brianna, Ashlyn, Kimsei & Jersey!
❤️ Intro to acro classes with Coach Makenna!
💜 Dance mom, Heather Siemers, who is a dietitian, came and spoke about taking care of our bodies through nutrition and healthy choices.
💛 Angie Jones, a physical therapist in town, came and spoke to the dancers about injury, prevention, and aftercare for dancers specifically.
💚 Sydney Stoner, an alumni and past coach came in to teach master classes in multiple styles. The dancers loved seeing her again!
🧡 We had a seminar on bullying prevention in a dance setting and how to recognize and prevent it. 
👯♀️The dancers got to find out who their big and Littles were for the season through a very fun reveal!
🍿 We had a movie night together! Complete with popcorn, candy and Boba! 
🪂 Lots of bonding activities to get to know each other more and grow stronger as a team!
Was it a long weekend? Yes. It sure was. But was it worth investing in ourselves to become stronger dancers and more importantly, stronger people? Yes absolutely! 
Thank you, dancers for showing up for yourselves and your teams! We hope you walked away feeling empowered and energized for a fabulous year! 
Thank you to our parents for arranging and providing meals and snacks for the weekend. A special thank you to Sara Rathjen for arranging at all! 
Thank you to our families for supporting us in our mission to provide the absolute best to our dancers! Grand Island Just For Kix truly is a family and such a special space. We are proud to go above and beyond for our kids!