The Student Dance Association, known to most as SDA, has been a staple at Wayne Valley High School in northern New Jersey for over 60 years. Created during a time when sports for girls were limited, it gave girls of all skill levels, shapes and sizes an opportunity to get involved. If you are not familiar with SDA the school is split up into 2 teams: Blue and White, which are the school colors. The genres of dance have changed through the years, but more recently both teams compete against each other with their own jazz, tap, aerobics and pom dances. There is an overall theme given to the show every year and each dance has their own subcategory where they use props, costumes and diverse choreography to tell a unique story. The show is held three nights in a row, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and each night judges sit in the stands of the auditorium and score each performance looking at the "wow factor" of each dance, the use of props, costumes, etc.
Prior to the three shows in the beginning of the week, both teams show their spirit by decorating two hallways with posters top to bottom; not an inch of white on the blue side, and not an inch of blue on the white side. The decorating is followed by cheering and screaming by both teams, letting the other one know they came to win. SDA is the best time of year for those involved, and for others...yeah we may get a little crazy, and during the week of the show you may have a hard time walking through the halls with screaming girls decked out in blue or white face paint and posters falling all around, but it's all in good fun.
SDA attracts people from all over town and beyond to witness the spectacle girls work several months on putting together. In the blink of an eye our time in high school and SDA comes to an end. When those four years are over and it is time to move on with our lives, our passion for the team that we laughed, cried, screamed and cheered for, and spent countless practices with, does not die. Which is one of the reasons as soon as I came to college I sat my roommate down and had her watch shows from previous years which would help explain why our dorm was covered in pictures of myself in friends sporting blue tutu's covered in blue paint. As an alumna, I would give anything to relive my experience as a member and former captain within the SDA. The Student Dance Association has allowed girls of all skill levels to feel apart of something, and I am forever thankful to have been given the opportunity to be a part of something so amazing. Whether you're forever bleeding blue like myself, or a lifetime fan of the white team, I think we all can agree we will be forever thankful for SDA for giving us all some of our best high school memories that we will never forget.
