School from eight in the morning to three in the afternoon, then Mystique practice until 5:30 p.m., more dance until 9:30 p.m. at Dance  Inc, and winding down with homework until midnight – welcome to a typical day in the life of Clare Marie Kuebler, freshman and proud new member of Varsity Mystique.

After tryouts last April, Kuebler and freshman Diana Biribin landed themselves a spot on Varsity Mystique.

“It’s an honor,” Kuebler said. “It was really cool for us to be the first freshman to make varsity.”

Mystique practices every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday after school in the Commons, sometimes adding additional practices on Friday if they’re learning choreography or need extra practice.

“It’s going really well actually,” Kuebler said. “We have to practice a lot, but it’s all worth it.”

Kuebler said the girls on the Varsity team have two competition dances–a jazz and a poms routine–which they will take to Nationals in Orlando, Florida in March. They also perform other dances during halftime, sideline routines and then a guy/girl dance in January.

Within the next few weeks, Varsity Mystique will also start their six a.m. practices in the gym in addition to their after school rehearsals.

“I love it. It’s really awesome,” Kuebler said. “All the girls are really nice. I think people make such a big deal about it, like they’re going to be mean, but they aren’t.”

In addition to dancing at MHS, both Kuebler and Biribin also dance competitively for Dance Inc., a studio in Ellisville.

“I get home pretty late, but I bring my homework to dance so I can get it done there,” Kuebler said.

Erin Brooks, sophomore, said she thinks both Kuebler and Biribin are transitioning very well to dancing on a high school team instead of just performing with a studio team.

“It’s really hard to transition from being a studio dancer to being on Mystique, and I think they’re doing really well going from one to the other,” Brooks said. “You can really tell that they were just on studio last year and didn’t do poms.”