These Minnesota high school skiers thaw themselves after races with dance battles

When the high school Nordic ski teams of Section 7 gather for a race, it’s always a show, featuring some of the state’s fastest skiers.

But on Saturday, when Ely hosts its section opponents, the skiers will put on a show, quite literally.

After the skiers cross the finish line, and as results are tabulated, Ely’s race organizers turn up the speakers, and teams compete in a dance-off.

Watch it at the end of this video posted last year on Instagram:

The tradition began shortly before Ely’s girls team won a 2017 state title. Laura Pasmick, a member of that team and a 2018 Ely grad, said the Timberwolves skiers were inspired by Grand Rapids breaking out in a line dance during a previous meet.

Ely, and Pasmick, wanted to take it one step further.

She and several teammates were former ballerinas and attended the same dance studio in Ely.

Some of the dancers gravitated toward Nordic skiing, and they brought their dance experience with them.

Pasmick encouraged the captains of their Section 7 opponents — which include Duluth East, the winners of 15 team state titles (seven for the boys, and eight for the girls), and Grand Rapids, a program with a three-year streak of girls championships — to email over their song choices.

“Teams were all really quick to get into it,” Pasmick said.

The 12-team section stretches from Mora up through Duluth to Grand Marais, and as far west as Grand Rapids. Amid a crowded field of fast racers, Ely has won both a boys and girls team state title and fielded two individual girls state champions.

After the playlists are checked, each team choreographs its dance. Former Ely Nordic coach Paula Anderson remembered one early dance to Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off,” and a Cloquet skier performing his figure skating routine in boots on the snow.

“It was really funny,” Pasmick recalled. “And yes, way more important [than awards]. The whole point was to take the competition out of it, just to be together and laugh.”

Section 7 opponents see one another again and again throughout the season, with fewer opponent options than Twin Cities teams have, making teams especially friendly with one another. And an annual ski trip to West Yellowstone over Thanksgiving, organized by Duluth East, helps bring the skiers from across northeast Minnesota closer.