Here at Woodhaven High School it is well known that there is a dance team, many people have certain opinions on whether it is a sport or not, however many of the people who believe it isn’t don’t know the inner workings of the team. After reading this article, hopefully, you can see how dance is a sport. Before the season begins, the JV coach holds a try-out for any individuals who would like to join the team.
Once you make the team, there is a meeting/practice where Coach Jillian Stephens reviews the handbook and what items will need to be purchased for the upcoming season. Following this, you will have practices between three and five days a week. Once this meeting is over, you will begin practice immediately by doing warm-ups and stretches and then jumping into usually learning the routine for the tree lighting first.
On average you will learn by taking a week to learn a dance and then move on to cleaning it. Cleaning isn’t a single-day process, it happens over time. Cleaning is always about getting deeper into the moves and making sure the team looks uniform. Meaning, that everyone is moving the same way at the same time. At first, the team starts by practicing the beginning repetitively.
Once the main dance is clean enough, you move on to learning the second dance. The main style is POM, if you don’t have this dance 100% perfect then you don’t learn anything else, only POM is performed. If a second style is done, it is hip-hop, along with this, varsity coach Ms. Courtney Linton teaches a jazz small group, in this, she chooses girls on the team who she feels are ready to learn an extra dance and have extra practice.
Each dance is between a minute and a minute and a half and is usually fast-paced. These dances include thighs that can win us points, such as level changes, different facial expressions, exciting choreography, and many transitions into different formations. With all dances, you have to show and express a lot of emotion, otherwise, the dance will look monotone and boring, as if you don’t want to be there.
The high school also has a varsity team, this team starts competing about a month before JV, this is because they start to learn their dances during football season. This year the varsity team is competing in two full group dances, hip-hop and jazz, along with senior solos. The varsity team’s schedule is very different from JV. They host one try-out at the end of each school year, the people who make the team will be on that team all year through football season and competition season. They can begin learning their dances earlier because they have the same team all year round.
Both teams participate in similar events, including the Woodhaven Tree Lighting, home basketball games, and competitions at other schools. Both teams use basketball games as a way to practice performing in front of a crowd full out and on a gym floor. This is done for them to practice maintaining energy, and keeping facials up the whole time…ABSOLUTELY NO FROWNING.
Erika Kuhn, the JV captain says, “I have passion, it brings out the best in me.” This is because the team is a family, they see each other every day. They see each other at their lowest and their highest when they’re tired, energetic, and everything in between.
As stated before, the varsity team has already started competing. They have placed well in all of their routines so far and hopefully will continue to do so. JV will be starting their comp season in about a month on January 14th at Little Caesars Arena, Downtown Detroit.
In dance just like any sport, your spot is never guaranteed. Many things can cause you to lose your spot, for example, missing practice or not knowing routines. However, you are still a part of a very supportive team, they all support each other whether it is JV supporting varsity, varsity supporting JV or us cheering each other on in other sports. Again, they are a family, just like any other family they have good days and bad days. But for the most part, everybody gets along.
Another way they support each other is by helping teammates learn new skills and techniques. As the season goes on everybody gets challenged to do moves that they didn’t think they could do or moves they haven’t yet mastered. This could include flips, multiple turns in a row, jumps, and anything in between. But over all both teams are great at what they do and should continue to excel.
