In the transition from high school to college, nearly eight million athletes must decide whether or not to continue their respective sport(s). The NCAA boasts statistics that suggest the cutthroat nature of this major athletic transition. Whether it be from burnout, injury, or just overwhelming competition for a small number of collegiate slots, no more than 10% of high school athletes in each sport continue to compete in college. One particular sport – yes, it is a sport – which requires not only athleticism, but style, rhythm, strength, endurance, and balance suffers unique disadvantages in the collegiate arena. Competitive Dance is not always regarded by universities as “athletics” and is often put on the back burner to other teams who bring in more money for their university. While collegiate dance teams suffer unique shortcomings, there are invaluable perks that cannot be found anywhere else.
1. You can be the most aggressively school-spirited student EVER. (Low-Key).
Dance teams have front row seats to all major collegiate sporting events. After having to attend at least six home football games and dozens of basketball games, it’s easy to grow attached to the players, the game, and all things implying overzealous school spirit. The benefits: no one has to know you would go to every single game even if you didn’t have to, relationships with the players, coaches, and all the behind-the-scenes staff who orchestrate each event, a half-second of “fame” when the TV shows your team before cutting to commercial (often causing random texts from an excited grandparent or distant cousin), and you just might learn a thing or two about football or basketball along the way. (No guarantees on that last part).
2. You can avoid the school fitness center! (Or at least try).
I am a firm believer that there is no place more horrifying on a college campus than the fitness center. While competitive dance requires flexibility, strength, and endurance, our style of conditioning is unlike that of the average gym-goer. To dancers, endurance has an entirely different meaning from “let’s see how fast and long I can go on the treadmill!” While that does sound like absolute terror, our version of endurance consists of repeating the same two minutes of choreography until it becomes physically impossible do another toe-touch or triple pirouette without toppling over. Perfecting a nationals routine is a workout unlike any other and will hopefully* allow dancers to skip heading to the fitness center every now and then.
3. People assume you have rhythm (just go with it).
My friends often draw the legitimate connection – and have since corrected themselves – that because I dance competitively, I know how to dance in a social setting. In reality, when I assume my role as a side observer, instead of judging the brave souls on the dance floor I’m actually wondering how the h-e-double-hockey-sticks they’re better at something I spend 35 hours practicing per week. Just because dance teamers can turn, jump, leap, and kick, people assume that we can handle ourselves whenever Nicki Minaj comes on after a few drinks. While that may be the case for most dancers, I can personally attest to the fact that this is not the case for all of us. The upside: no one has to know.
4. It is the PERFECT excuse.
Awkward date functions. Uncomfortable situations. Stuff that we just can’t/ won’t do – they’re all going to happen. Fortunately for dance teamers, our schedules of practices, performances, and appearances are often so bizarre that a simple “Sorry, I have dance,” will suffice in almost any situation. Though teams are frustrated by accommodating practice and workout times to those of more widely acknowledged teams on campus, one benefit of this malleability is that most people refuse to wrap their brains around our schedule. Practice could be from 9-12 on one Saturday morning and then last from 12-6 the next Saturday. NOBODY KNOWS. We don’t even know when we have practice half of the time. The “dance excuse” is impenetrable.
5. This is your sorority/family (or second).
Some teams allow their members to rush sororities while others maintain that Dance Team be their priority. Regardless of the situation, Dance Team is like a sorority – and potentially so much more. Teammates become best friends disparately from all other relationships. Teammates spend a copious amount of time together in practice, at team bonding events, traveling, and performing. They work collectively to reach the same end-goal. Dance teams, in particular, work to literally have their dancers become one in the same. Synchronicity is an essential component of the perfect nationals routine; it doesn’t come easily. Dancers spend months conforming to the same exact style of movement all at the exact same time. These months are a gargantuan growing experience and require relentless repetition. Teammates are fully present for one another at the dreaded early morning weekend practices when Coach makes them repeat long turn sequences and when no one else is left on campus for breaks. They become a fixed presence in one another’s lives – which ultimately leads to knowing perhaps a little too much about each dancer. But trust us, we would not have it any other way.