Coming off a very successful competition season, the Tivy Golden Girls dance team will cap the year with an ambitious event and invite the public to attend.
“The dancers have football season in the fall, then we have our winter show, which is just like a smaller recital that we have in the gym, and then we have contest season where we travel to compete with multiple routines,” said Golden Girls director, Katie Nichol-Owens.
The big finale for the Golden Girls’ team is their Spring recital at Arcadia Live, with this year’s being titled “Routes & Roots.” The two-show production is slated for May 3 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. and will feature routines from the Golden Girls’ competition run as well as additional dances.
“They’ll show all of those contest routines, which is four for the varsity, three for the officers, and then two for the JV team. They have a few extra dances as well – this year they have a dancer’s choice routine, so they get to teach somebody to dance with them at the show too,” said Nichol-Owens.
Nichol-Owens has directed and coached the Golden Girls and Sapphires for five years, emphasizing the program’s ability to instill its dancers with kindness above all else.
“The biggest thing for me is humanity and character before dance. At the end of the day, I would rather have the kindest and most honorable people on our team than the best dancers. I don’t care about talent – I can make talent,” said Nichol-Owens.
The drill team program trains its dancers for competitions, but also for life.
“ We try to teach them about respect, accountability, making sure to communicate, just learning how to work hard. I feel like with social media, it’s really easy to compare themselves when they don’t get something right away and then just give up since it looks like all these dancers online are perfect. We teach that somebody might be better – and that’s okay. It doesn’t matter. We just want them to keep overcoming hardships,” said Nichol-Owens.
Spending her entire high school career in the Golden Girls and Sapphires program, and now operating as the team’s Social Officer, is Lulu Stebbins.
“The program really helped me just come out of my shell and meet people. I had a really hard time finding friends in middle school and Golden Girls has really given me a family and people to fall back on, which has been so helpful throughout high school,” said Stebbins.
One dancer that demonstrates the responsibility and resilience she gained through the Golden Girls program is Senior Colonel Hollie Lehmann, who joined the varsity dance team her freshman year.
“I do some choreography, I lead the Sapphires class in fourth period and sometimes I lead my class. This program has honestly helped me grow so much, especially with my confidence in leadership skills. Now I’m Colonel my senior year, so it’s definitely just helped me grow not only as a dancer, but into who I am right now,” said Lehmann.
The benefits the program provides for its dancers unfortunately often comes with a hefty price tag. Expenses related to participating in the drill team range from costuming to competition travel.
“For new members and returners, there are team and officer camp costs, costuming, things they need for football season like their boots and hats. We are looking for sponsors to help cover the costs of the dancer first, then the rest will go towards renting out the Spring Show venue,” said Nichol-Owens.
The Golden Girls Bootbacker Sponsorship program offers multiple tiers for sponsorship. From the Crowd Pleaser option at $250 to the Elite Gold level at $2,500, the Golden Girls are asking for support from their community and fans. With benefits like sponsors’ logos printed on banners and T-shirts, the businesses who support the program will also receive advertisement.
For more information on how to support the Golden Girls in their upcoming 2025-26 year, contact Katie Nichol-Owens by emailing her at katie.nicholowens@kerrvilleisd.net.