1,300 Students Get Their Kicks in Anaheim : Dance: The youths compete for nationwide honors. Esperanza High’s was the only Orange County team to place.

Strut, kick and smile. Jump, touch and smile. Swing, shake, reach, flounce, balance . . . and smile some more.

These were the operative words Saturday for about 1,300 girls--and one boy--who converged on the Anaheim Convention Center to compete in the annual Dance Team National Championship sponsored by NCA Superstar, a division of the National Cheerleaders Assn.

The competitors hailed from 20 states and represented more than 80 dance studios, junior high schools and high schools, including seven from Orange County. Although the teams are normally accustomed to rousing school spirit at athletic events, on Saturday they battled it out with one another in eight performance categories, such as jazz dance, body rock and kick routines.

“What you see out here is different from what you’ll see on the football field or the basketball court,” NCA Superstar Vice President Shary Anderson said. “Here the kids challenge themselves to do more elaborate choreography and floor work.”

The air was electric with nervous energy as team after team rushed in and out of the convention center’s arena, dancing before 300 spectators and a panel of 10 judges. The seven-member song-leading team from Westminster High School, competing in the event for the first time, emerged flushed with confidence and plenty of adrenaline.

“We were out there and it was uncontrollable,” said 17-year-old Missy Dalton, breathless from her exertions. “It was outrageous. I want to go out there and do it again!”

Several teams did, competing in more than one category. Among them was the Champion Super Star team from Houston, which boasted the lone male competitor in the event, 15-year-old Gerald Hardy.

Asked how it felt to be the only boy in a sea of females, he said with composure: “I’m used to it. It’s OK with me.”

Winners, announced Saturday night, included the team from Esperanza High School in Anaheim, the only Orange County school to place. Esperanza captured first place and was declared national champion in jazz dance and body rock--described as contemporary, urban-style dancing--for teams with 12 members or less.

At least two high school teams, including one from Colorado, canceled their berths in Saturday’s competition out of fear of terrorism, NCA Superstar officials said.

Most of the teams at the competition flew into Los Angeles International Airport, and the teams that canceled were apparently forbidden by their districts to fly into international airports, fearing the threat of terrorist attacks, officials said.