Competition

Hey!

So I think last time I finished by telling you the hours of dance team practices. Something else I would like to mention about these practices is that they are always mandatory. It is extremely extremely rare that someone is absent at a practice. I believe this is because our coach wants us to utilize all the practice time we can get as a team, and also thinks it is just a professional thing to do.

During our first few practices of the year (which are in September) we work on time-out and sideline dances for basketball games and other events that we may possibly be assigned to. After about a month of practices, our coach introduced us to our songs for our competition routines and gave us an idea of what our costumes would be like.  He gives us multiple variations of choreography including technique so it could give him an idea of who can do what kind of tricks. It was a little bit nerve racking at first -- especially since I was a rookie.

After he has evaluated our technical skills, he started setting formations and choreography permanently so he could move along with completing the routines. It is definitely a very long and strenuous process to complete and perfect a competition routine before nationals, but it is also really fun and interesting to watch your team grow as a whole.

We do a heck of a lot of cleaning up of the dances before we leave for nationals, and one can really see the difference in our performance. We were very motivated to take it all in Florida, and we wound up leaving with 2nd in jazz and 9th in hip hop. we were extremely excited for placing in the top ten in hip hop because it was the first time in Cal State Long Beach Dance Team history that the team has competed a hip hop routine. We definitely felt very accomplished.

Next time I will talk more about commercial dancing. Don't know what that is? No worries.
Watch this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YTbVW_SZvs