Last year, I joined Arcadia University's dance organization, Knight Club, and it quickly proved to be one of the best decisions I have ever made during my time in college. If you yourself are also a member of Knight Club, you will be able to vouch for how true the following struggles are.
1. Your schedule completely revolves around dance rehearsal.
It does not matter if you are in one dance or seven, (because that is the absolute maximum number of dances that the bylaws will allow you to be in), Monday through Friday, you have planned your schedule down to the second to make sure you'll be at each and every dance practice.
2. The never-ending adventures in choreography.
Whether you are the choreographer or just trying to help them make sense of formations, you will know that any dance is a system of trial and error. Sometimes you can get away with lifting someone into the air and other times you will learn that jumping directly offstage is not so easy on the knees.
3. Trying to pick the right song is tough.
Maybe this semester you will try out that sassy Beyoncé hip-hop number. But wait-someone else is teaching a dance to an old Wings-era McCartney tune, and you just have to be a part of it!
4. The evils of cutting music.
Alright, so "This Is War" by 30 Seconds to Mars goes over the time restraint by a solid two minutes and twenty seven seconds. Nothing like spending some quality time cursing out Garage Band can't fix because come hell or high water, this will be the song you dance to.
5. Costume budgeting
If you are a large group choreographer, you get $25 towards making all of your dancers look pretty. Awesome! But, if you are a small group choreographer, then you will just have to make do with your own funding or some clever closet costuming.
6. The occasional injury.
Because even with the excessive amount of stretching you do, it is somehow never enough to completely prevent the odd pulled muscle or shin splints.
7. The sudden rush to finish dances two weeks before the show.
No matter how well you prepared for it in the weeks leading up, somehow there is always a part of every dance that has been left untaught until the last minute.
8. The rush of dress rehearsal.
Stiteler auditorium is guaranteed to be packed to the brim with dancers and costumes. Everyone is trying to run through the show order as quickly as possible before the next event that is trying to push themselves in before you have even begun rehearsing Act II. Ah, the charms of going to a small school with a single auditorium.
9. Pre-show casualties
Not just injuries, but anything from the common cold to the stomach flu tends to find its way into the dressing rooms-er, computer and 3D printing labs, guaranteed to reap havoc on all of the dancers. Luckily, since you are no stranger to performance weekends, you or someone you know has undoubtedly packed a bag supplied with Tums, Band-Aids, Pepto Bismol, and plenty of Gatorade to help get those suffering through the day.
10. Post-show weekend exhaustion.
You practically collapse back into your bed after all of your non-stop dancing but at the end of the day, you are really excited to do it all over again and cannot wait for Knight Club to start up again next semester.
