Just like sisters: Illness makes dance team strong

By JEN SEAVEY

Journal Sports Editor

NEW ULM -- It hasn't been an ordinary year for the New Ulm Cathedral Sonics Dance Team -- especially for Jenna Langer.

Langer never expected to be diagnosed her senior year with Osteosarcoma, a bone cancer that is only found in children. She didn't expect two of her teammates to get into car accidents, one to have appendicitis, or for another, Crysten Glawe, to suffer fainting spells.

And after all of that, Langer didn't necessarily expect to go to state. She knew the Sonics had worked hard and deserved to reach the state tournament, probably more than other years, but the odds had been against them.

The Sonics will perform their high kick/precision routine in the Class A Dance Team Tournament between 2:15 and 4:30 p.m. today at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

"I think we have a really good shot at finals," Langer said. "But we are on the really small side of [Class] single-A, so anything we pull off we'll be happy with."

Last year, the Sonics went to state but were unable to place in the top six to go to finals.

"I just have confidence in the team," Glawe said. "If we work hard and keep a positive attitude and keep nailing our performance, we can do well. We've worked hard for this."

It would be a gratifying ending to a trying year for Langer and her teammates.

Diagnosis

Two days after the Sonics danced for homecoming last September, Langer went to the doctor because she had lost some hearing from what she had thought was a cold. She was treated for a sinus infection, but that weekend, parts of her face went numb, and when she went to Owatonna and had a CT scan done on her head, she was referred to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

"I didn't think anything serious," she said. "When you're young, you don't think anything will happen to you. I thought it was benign, not anything threatening."

At Mayo, she was diagnosed as having Osteosarcoma in her cheek bone.

"I just remember my mom crying," she said. "When they tell you, it doesn't hit you at first. I was just worried about mom."

She started chemotherapy right away with three different drugs. One of the drugs was too toxic for Langer, who reacted and was rushed to Rochester by Ambulance. In all, Langer was in the hospital nine times -- seven for chemo and twice for illnesses. The last round of chemo was so harsh, doctors decided to change the treatment to radiation.

After tests, Langer found out that the tumor hadn't grown, but hadn't shrunk either. They also found that it was inoperable because it was under the dura, the lining around the brain, and around the coratid artery. Langer had been told that surgery is the only sure cure for Osteosarcoma.

Now, Langer is being treated five days a week for seven weeks with radiation -- Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy, or IMRT, which hits the tumor with extreme accuracy from many angles.

Langer has heard of a handful of cases in which radiation alone killed off the cells in the tumor, but it is a rare occurrence.

"I just hope the radiation works," Langer said. "It's scary to think about. Everyone's been so nice and supportive. Right now, I'm living in the moment. I'm not trying to think about it, because that's not going to do anything."

Doctors are unsure how long the tumor will stay the same size and how long she can survive with her cancer.

"They have no idea," she said. "It's frustrating -- I want an answer, because I want to know if I should be living day to day or if I need to do more planning."

She is planning to attend the University of Minnesota next year and major in English and psychology and minor in marketing.

"The 'U' has a really good cancer research hospital right across from the dorms," she said.

In the more immediate future, Monday, Langer will start chemo again to prevent the cancer from spreading outside of her cheek bone.

Dedication

Despite weekly, or even daily, trips for treatment to Rochester, Langer has been able to make it to practices when she hasn't been in the hospital. She would either go to practice at 6:30 a.m. before leaving, or at 5 p.m. afterwards. Langer said that being able to dance is what keeps her going.

"It just killed me when I couldn't dance. Every time I'm in the hospital, I just think I want to dance the whole year -- that was my goal," Langer said. "You take it for granted when you can dance, but when you are taken away from something, you really appreciate it.

"The doctors look at pictures of me dancing and they're proud, because the kids I'm in the hospital with are in wheelchairs and can't do much, so it's a big deal that I'm where I'm at," she said.

It has been a long road, and Langer is unable to actually dance at state, because the high kick practices have been too vigorous for her as she has gone through treatment. She was able to compete in jazz/funk until last week, but cannot continue in the more aerobic high kick.

"I may have been able to do it [the high kick routine] by now, but if they put me in now, it'd mess everyone else up," Langer said.

However, Langer is excited to be able to support her team. She will be watching the performance with Katie Moeller, who cannot dance because she recently had her appendix removed, and one of the girls who was in a car accident. Langer may be seen wearing one of her signature hats, and possibly Sonics legwarmers, a glove from her costume and the quilt that her teammates recently had made for her.

"They put up with a lot," Langer said of her teammates. "They cover for me and cheer for me, even when I'm not dancing my best. This year, more than any other, we've had a team atmosphere, because we've had to support each other."

Coach Missy Mack said that even though Langer isn't dancing, the team is invigorated simply by her presence -- plus it is a help to have another person on the sidelines that can lend a trained eye.

"She brings energy to the team," Mack said. "When she wasn't here, you could tell that they truly missed her. You could tell when her energy, her presence, wasn't here."

"I dance. That's what I do. That's where my passion is at," Langer said. "There's an adrenaline in it. When the base is pumping on the floor, you just take it up and dance."

Langer is also the captain of the choreograph team, so when she critiques from the sidelines, she knows what she is talking about. It also means that much of the dance done to "Bittersweet Symphony" at state is her creation, and some of that creation was done in the hospital.

"It's really awesome -- when I was in the hospital, they would come up to have choreograph meetings," she said. "We would move the beds and all my IV poles, and we would be the only people in the hospital dancing around. It was really cool."

In all, members of the Sonics think that the ordeals that they have been plagued with all season have been frustrating, but it has also made the team a cohesive, strong unit.

"I think it has brought them closer as a team -- they've laughed together and cried together," Mack said. "It has made them work harder, made them realize that you never know what is going to happen.

"It's made them just like sisters," she said.