Gallatin High's Aidynn Oden named The Tennessean Student of the Week for dancers
After a week of voting and more than 18,800 clicks in the poll, Gallatin High School's Aidynn Oden has emerged as The Tennessean Student of the Week honoring dancers.
Oden, a sophomore, is a member of Gallatin's award-winning Wavettes dance team and is currently enrolled in the school's dance program. She and her team recently competed at the National Dance Alliance High School Dance Nationals in Orlando, Florida, where they placed 5th in Hip Hop and 8th in Game Day.
One of Oden's teachers wrote that she is an assistant choreographer for the dance program's spring concert, and that she's not only a leader in dance, but also "in the classroom" at Gallatin High School.
As part of The Tennessean Student of the Week series, we ask teachers, staff and administrators to send us their nominations, and then we let you, the reader, decide who wins by casting votes in our online poll.
This week, we asked schools from across Middle Tennessee to send us their best dance students.
We got nominations for hip-hop and ballet students and everything in between.
We will be taking a short recess for spring break after this week, as many of our schools will be doing the same, but we will return with a new poll on April 7.
Be sure to mark your calendar now because you won't want to miss out. The April 7 poll will feature students who excel in E-Sports, but first, let's revisit the dancers from this week.
As always, we believe every student who gets nominated for the Student of the Week feature is a winner. So here's a little bit about our other nominees from this week, as written by those who nominated them:
The senior has danced her whole life at her local studio and throughout her matriculation in high school. During her sophomore year, Procter suffered a tear in her shoulder that caused surgery and 6 weeks off. She didn't let that stop her, though. She came back stronger than ever!
The junior has been on the dance team since she was freshman. Goggin is such a devoted team member and incredibly talented dancer. She not only performs on the dance team but dances on a competition team with American Academy of Dance in Hendersonville.
The senior has been training to dance since the age of three at Dance Force. As soon as she was eligible, she joined both her middle school and high school dance teams. Johnson has been a committed varsity member of the RHS dance team for four years and now serves as captain. Throughout all four years of high school, she has balanced the demands of competitive dance while maintaining her focus on education and leadership. Her commitment, discipline and passion exemplify the qualities of an outstanding student-athlete.
The senior has danced for roughly 11 years with nine of those being competitive. She has been a part of the Mount Juliet High School Dance Team (MJDT) for the past 3 years and served as a captain this past season. This past season, her hip-hop routine once again placed 7th in the nation. She was also awarded the DTU Pro award this past season at DTU Camp, a three-day dance summer camp through the competitive circuit Dance Team Union. After high school, she plans to attend a four-year university and major in sustainability studies.
The senior has been a member of the dance team for 4 years and is currently a captain. She has overcome a lot in her 4 years on the MCHS dance team and has battled her way back from injury. She was recently named an All American at Universal Dance Association dance camp. This year she also helped lead her team to placing 6th place in nationals in the hip-hop division.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Gallatin's Aidynn Oden wins The Tennessean dance Student of the Week
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