SUBLETTE COUNTY – While the WYLD Dance Company competitive dance team is preparing for the national competition coming up in July, the 10-member team will be missing its lone senior: Landon Preece.

“It was so fun to have Landon with us this year,” Anastasia Hamilton, owner and operator of WYLD Dance Company. “He has a very natural talent as a dancer and it was awesome to work with him.”

“We all wish we could have him a little longer,” she said. “His personality is so fun and he added a fun new dynamic to our team. Having male dancers in a small town is hard to come by, especially one with a natural ability to move like he does. We are all extremely grateful to have had him on our team this year.”

As a senior at Pinedale High School, Preece will be heading to Arizona for a summer job, located just an hour north of the north rim of the Grand Canyon.

"I do have the final dance recital on June 5, and the day after I head down to work," he said. 

Even though Preece won't be dancing in Las Vegas, he advised his team: "Represent Pinedale and Wyoming well.”

Dance has been a part of Preece's life for years after being inspired by a video game.

"I actually started dancing when my parents bought me Dance Central on my Xbox," he said. “I conquered the game when I was 12 and never really lost the knack for it.”

Every time the middle school hosted dance instructors to do a small workshop for middle school fitness class, Preece said he always had a blast.

"I picked up dancing seriously again when I entered high school and started participating in school musicals and, of course, when I joined the dance team this year,” he said.

Performing is nothing new to Preece as he has taken part in choir concerts and the high school musical throughout high school, along with taking the stage in three school theater productions and one with the community theater during his high school years. 

At this year’s high school choir concert, Preece received special recognition for his dedication over the years, receiving numerous accolades, including: Outstanding Senior in Choir Award and the Student Leadership Award, as well as being recognized as a four-time All-State choir participant while being in jazz choir for four years and in jazz band for one year.

PHS Choir Directory Gregory Allen said that Preece also received a certificate for the choir trip to Florida as well as a bar in choir, as he lettered in choir last year, and a plaque for going to All-State.

“Landon is an amazingly talented student, but he isn’t coasting on talent alone,” Allen said. “Landon is successful because he out-practices the competition in everything he does. Hard work and a positive, achievement-focused attitude help him prioritize tasks and succeed at what he deems important.” 

Preece also took the spotlight in the choir concert as a featured piano soloist of the evening as he donned a top hat to play “Greatest Showman Medley,” which brought the audience to its feet on the final note.

Even though Preece has lots of experience being on stage, this was the first year as a competitive dancer for this showman.

"I've had a lot of performing experience in past high school theatrical productions and concerts,” he said, “but this put me in a new environment with its own stresses that have taught me a lot.”

Preece credits his dancemate, PHS sophomore Jill Warembourg, of convincing him to join the team.

“She will tell you that she nagged me every single day of my junior year, asking if I would join her dance team,” he said. “Obviously, it worked, so here I am. I really liked the idea of participating in a high-level dance group doing some of the dances I find the most fun.”

Warembourg said she asked him every single day; and on weekends when she didn’t see him, she would text him.

“I knew it would be something he would enjoy,” she said, adding that she also knew he would take dance seriously and be dedicated. “I saw him in “Singing in the Rain,” and I knew he would like (dance). Not only that, but I knew he would be good at it.”

As the lone male dancer on the high school team and a new team member to boot, Preece said it took a couple of weeks to get over the initial shock of being on a team of all girls.

"I'm not sure I would say I am all the way comfortable with the team yet, just because I am still the new guy that hasn't been with them for a very long time, " he said. "As soon as we understood each other's skill levels and purposes for being there, we got a lot more comfortable with each other -- me and the other dancers that is."

Preece said the hardest part of being on the team has been “having to be the abnormality of the team.”

“I happen to be the only male dancer on the team, so the other female dancers, both in studio and at competitions, seem to be a tiny bit off-edge when they see me walking around and dancing,” he said.

As for best part of competitions, Preece said: "I think what I like the most about competitions is the variety of dancers and dances that are presented. So many people come together to express themselves through dance and the variety that accomplishes that is incredible. 

"My least favorite part … is being the exception,” he added. “I walk down the hall at competition and feel dozens of female eyes staring me down probably with male alert sirens going off.”

However, Hamilton said that having a male dancer on a dance team is not unusual, adding that many dance teams have male dancers on them. However, many of them are like the WYLD Dance team in which there are only one or two members who are male.

“It really takes a brave and confident person to join an all-female dance team,” she said. “I admire Landon for that. He got a lot of positive attention for being on the team. I really hope that he formed a stepping stone to other boys in the community into joining dance. Having boys on a competition team really helps us stand out from other studios. Judges love to see male representation of dance on stage. It really gives us a unique image and it is admired by judges and audiences.” 

The team’s hip-hop dance, in which Preece holds a spotlight position, earned top marks at both the Aspire Competition in March and then again at the Spotlight Cup in April.

Preece said the team did as well as he expected: “We worked very hard to polish our dances and make them as synchronized as possible, and for where we got, we totally deserved the rankings we got.”

A big part of the competition is also watching other competitors and for Preece, some of the soloist performances made a lasting impression. 

“There was this one girl, I don't know her name, but she was a phenomenal dancer. She was able to strike a powerful pose where she was in a low split, but the only thing touching the ground was her feet! That showed me just how strong dancers and I can become.”

Even though his high school dance career will come to an end with the June recital, dance will stay in his life.

“Definitely. I love dancing enough at this point to keep it as a hobby in the least. I also want to keep with the theater and musical performing arts, so I think dance can couple that well.”

After working through the fall and a bit of the winter, Preece said he hopes to then serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Throughout the month of May, Preece and his dancemates will be hard at work rehearsing for the June recital.

“I am a part of the group hip-hop and tap dance numbers and have a trio with Jill and Stasia,” he said. “We haven't started choreographing the trio yet, so it may not happen due to time constraints, but here's hoping.”

Preece also said: “My favorite dance currently, even though we haven't choreographed the entire thing, will be the group tap dance. It is the most fun, visually stunning and the song is super powerful. We get to use wooden sticks to slap around in addition to our feet, too.”

Preece and the rest of the WYLD Dance Company will take to the stage for its annual recital on June 4 and 5 in the Pinedale Auditorium. Tickets went on sale May 10 to the public. Admission is $10 for Adults and $5 for students.