Back to Basics with Rose and Mary Kibala

Black Hills Gymnastics believes to be the best, you have to be well-rounded. Because of that, we bring a lot of talent and knowledge to our girls and boys team clinics. This gives our athletes outside instruction from some of the best in the sport both regionally and nationally!

Two of those people are Rose and Mary Kibala. We brought them in to show us all new routines and to really focus on our basics in dance. Afterward, we got the chance to speak to Rose to find out more about her, her sister and what the value they gave our Levels 3-9 athletes!

Hi Rose, can you tell us a bit more about you and your sister?

Definitely! I’ve been choreographing for over 8 years, and I currently choreograph for local club and high school gymnastics teams. I recently became the Assistant Coach at Newport High School for the Women’s Gymnastics team. Before that, I was a Graduate Assistant for the University of Washington Women’s Gymnastics team.

While at UW, I truly learned to understand that gymnastics is not only an amazing sport but a complete show. Athletes put everything into performing and putting the final touches on routines to make it an awesome performance. This gets overlooked often in gymnastics and the teams that don’t practice their dance techniques and fundamentals really struggle in competition when it comes to execution and performing. Gymnastics matches beauty and power in a wonderful way.

Mary is a professional dancer who performs all around the region. She’s a former member of West Lake Affiliates, a competitive dance team and currently is a full-time dancer with West Lake Dance Center. She’s been a dancer for over 15 years AND has 12 years of Gymnastics experience.

We have an Instagram page where we share many of our dance moves, instructions, and memories we make along the way! 

That’s great! What did you each do at the camp?

Mary taught 3 dances for 3 different groups. They practiced them for 2 days and performed the dances for their families at the end of camp. It’s wonderful to see what they can learn so quickly! She came to help BHG athletes with musicality and performance. Basically, she helped them add personality to what they do so it’s more of a show. A struggle is making sure athletes feel comfortable in their movements, so we go step-by-step in these team clinics, where we bring in outside experts. It’s important to have someone break down the moves within a routine slowly to make sure the finer points are picked up.

I was teaching dance and ballet basics, tapping into the foundation of dance by preaching the basics. I love to help kids realize if they perfect the little things, it’ll COMPLETELY transform all parts of their execution on every event.

Working together, we were able to pack a lot of information and personalized coaching in so each athlete has the tools and skills necessary to dominate this upcoming season!

Any advice during this time of year for athletes?

Summer months are a great time to work on new skills so you can move to the “next level” but it’s also vital to work on the foundation. Taking more time to do dance basics with the extra time you have will solidify the FOUNDATION!

Even if you’re the highest level, there’s always something to clean up.

What should parents or coaches look for when bringing in clinicians or instructors like you and Mary?

Someone who’s detail-oriented and actually takes time to break down movements step by step. If you skip little pieces, it’ll hurt in the long run. And bring in someone who can make it fun!

What stands out with BHG?

Is there anything that makes Black Hills Gym stand out from the other gyms you work with?

This is the 3rd summer I’ve worked with the athletes and coaches at BHG and I really admire what coach Li Lu has really drilled basics, so we had a lot to work with.

All coaches truly make a big effort to constantly improve and striving for greatness while making sure gymnastics is fun! That doesn’t always translate in all the gyms I go to.

Wow! As you can tell, our athletes got some incredible 1-on-1 attention with passionate, skilled instructors. Just one more reason the future is looking insanely bright at Black Hills Gymnastics!