Sacks alive for dance team
They’re back.
After a 10-year hiatus, the Ferris High School dance team’s Silly Sacks were scheduled to make their comeback at the 4A State Basketball Turnament Wednesday in Tacoma.
During the Silly Sack routine, dance team members zip themselves into crimson-colored stretchy bags. Once securely zipped, they transform from ghostly creatures to beating hearts and then into something that resembles dancing ravioli.
“We’re bringing back the Silly Sack routine because it was in such high demand,” said dance team coach Emily Torres.
“It’s hilarious and kind of creepy and cool all at the same time. Whenever our basketball team travels to Seattle, they immediately say, ‘Where’s the dance team and the sacks?’ I didn’t even know what they were talking about,” Torres said.
Torres, now in her third year as coach, met some Seattleites on a camping trip who were the first to describe the phenomenon to her.
In 1995, the Silly Sacks were featured in Sports Illustrated and on ESPN. While Spokane crowds weren’t sure what to think of them at first, Seattle-area spectators couldn’t get enough.
The team is happy to return to the sacks but admit that it takes a little getting used to.
Some girls get a bit claustrophobic. They run over to get unzipped the second the routine is over.
“The bags make it a lot harder to move. It’s kind of scary in there. You really can’t see anything except outlines of people and shadows,” said Kacie Klein, a junior who has helped develop the choreography.
“It’s also really hot in there, and it’s hard to breathe,” added junior Courtney Crater, the teams co-captain. “But it’s tradition. We just hope everyone likes it.”
The sacks also offer anonymity. If someone makes a mistake, no one knows who it was.
The first Silly Sack routine was developed by coach Nancy Butz in 1991 for a Rubber Chicken basketball game half-time performance.
“She was the first coach to bring this to Spokane, and she has since coached at other schools and never passed on the bag routine,” Torrest said. “She’s let it stay at Ferris, and so we wanted to remain true to her original routine but still make it a little more timely.
“We’ve incorporated some of the old songs with some new songs, and we’ve done the same with our moves.” .
Performing in sacks was a first for both the coach and the 27-member dance team. Luckily, Brooke Badinger, a former Saxon bag dancer, was home from college and acted as an adviser.
Badinger showed the girls the necessary techniques involved to make the bags square, and how dancers should hold their hands. Their wrists have to be straight.
When they lie on the ground, their heads have to be to the side. Their feet have to lie open.
“I never would have thought of these things,” Torres said. “She just knew the ins and outs and the basics that we needed to even get started,” she said.
“It’s very likely that the Silly Sack routine will be around for a while. We spent so much money on them,” Torres said.
The Ferris Parent Teacher Group gave the team $1,000 from Ham on Regal proceeds to purchase its new sacks.