How time flys.

Yesterday, MSG Plus aired Division 1 and 2 Dance and Cheer for an hour. What I am really sad about is the fact that they didn't even show us! All other years they showed at least clips of the top 5 teams, playing the full #1 routine in each division. OF COURSE, this year has to be different. But that's okay I guess, it was fun to watch, knowing that I was once on that very stage that was on TV. I really miss my time down there right now, its hard to say goodbye to something you loved doing so much. I guess it is time for me to turn the page to the next chapter in my life. the real world. ew.. Id rather be dancing.

Tonight was the Campus Life Leadership Awards. The dance team was there as well as many clubs and organizations and student government, and leaders on campus. We were nominated for "Club of the Year" and WON! What a great way to end this senior year on the team. 4th place, and Club of the Year. My coach started crying at the end of the award ceremony. She always joked that she wished we would just graduate already, but I know she is just saying that because in reality she is really going to miss us!

On Sunday, the whole team is getting together for a pizza party to say goodbye to all of us seniors. I'll be sure to bring some tissues to that. I hate goodbyes, especially when its to people I care about and an activity that has had a huge impact on my life.

On another note, I can't even tell you how many people at the CLLA's mentioned that graduation is in 2 weeks. I don't want to be reminded of such news. Can I just be a freshman again? Life was so easy then.

Lastly, here is the random blog I commented on, it is of a painter. His artwork was actually quite amazing to see. Very different. I commented on his Venice bridge painting, because it is my most favorite place in the world, and it reminded me of when I was there nearly a year ago. Ah, what I would do to go back. I left my heart there.

Here is also my last promotions link for the semester. You should check it out. Its pretty fun!

Cheers and VQUZESHUF to all!
Andrea

Another Required Blog

Similar to what we were talking about in class recently, Max posts about the importance of having a link back to your site whenever it is used. (haha, such as I am doing right now!) He talks about search engine optimization, where his site would pop up at a higher rank the more times it was used. This is why in class we are using the term VQUZESHUF and linking it to youtube.com, becuase before my online marketing class started to use this wacky term, it wasn't even found on Google - and now there are results for it! (and youtube is on there too!) It seems to come down to who is going to credit a person who came out with something. We do it in term papers for school, making works cited pages. Why not on blogs? a hyperlink in a blog is so easy to make, its at the top of this very toolbar from which im writing this. So why not link back? Its a very simple process, and gives credit to the correct person. So if someone mentions your blog in their writings, ask them to link it back!

NBA Dance Teams

Last night I went to SHU FORCE's dance recital, because I can never get enough dance in my life. It made me realize how much I miss dancing, not only collegiate style dance, but mainly lyrical, tap, ballet, and pointe.
So after school and everything slows down, I think I am going to make my way into the city and take some classes at Broadway Dance Center, which can help me prepare for trying out for some NBA dance teams. I found out the the Jets football team dance squad has tryouts this month...the day before graduation. just my luck.
My eye is set out the New Jersey Nets Dance Team, I think it would be more of an attainable goal then the New York Knicks - at least for now. The Knicks Dancers are basically their own franchise, and I don't feel I would be ready for that just yet. I know a few of the girls on the Net's dance team have been on some of the collegiate teams I have competed against down in Daytona in the past.

VQUZESHUF this.

Lastly, here is my last link about my presentation on promotion and how it related to the topic. ENJOY!

Ciao!

Max Kalehoff's Blog

A required assignment is to review a post, I choose this topic by Max Kalehoff on how social networking can damage a persons repuation.

I found this post to be very interesting because of the growth of social networking site over the past few years. I completly agree to what he is saying. I have recieved many party invitions on a social networking site - facebook. I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I have declined party invitations from this person. You would think they would get the hint that no, I am not interested in partying every night in New Haven at the clubs you promote. I think some social networking sites have gone too far as far as invitations to places are concerned. Just like what he said; its constantly the same person. UGH. It makes me almost want to delete this person off my friends list.

We need to be careful with what we put on our social networking page, it affects how people view you, and if an employer can get a hand of personal information you havent shared with them, whether it be in writing, events you attend, pictures, or even what your friends write on your wall, one can loose, or not even obtain a postion. Terrible.

Take a look at the post yourself. Makes you think a little.

http://www.attentionmax.com/blog/2008/04/when_the_social-networking_craze_damages_your_reputation.php

VQUZESHUF,
Andrea

No more dance

I have all this downtime now that I dont have practice for more than 6 hours in a week. That time is now being used to do all the assignments I have due in the next 2 weeks of class, and enjoying this beautiful weather.
I miss dance a lot, it gave me a release from all the stress in my life, so I have been searching some NBA dance team tryouts that I can attend this summer. I cant just stop - its my way of life and my happiness. I cant stop watching the videos on varsitywired.com

The dance team even made headlines on the athletic webpage! Take a look!

Last Thursday my group gave the presentation on Promotion, this link is from my internship. We do monthly promotions, and this one has to deal with the start of baseball season, a very big focus for the company. Check it out!

VQUZESHUF everyone!
Andrea

4th grade field trip

What an exciting update this will be!
The Sacred Heart University Dance Team is 4th place in Division 1 dance!!!!!!
This is most exciting for the team because it was the biggest achievement in the teams history by far. The closest win was in 2005, placing 7th in the nation.
We are so, so proud of our achievement; and even though it has been days since we found out, we are still talking about our experience nonstop!
We got down to Daytona Beach, FL on Wednesday around noon time. We immediately settled in the the hotel room and got straight to business. We had a few hours of practice, dinner and a team talk, and were all in bed by 10:30
We all woke up Thursday morning at 5:30, excited, nervous and anxious. As we were doing our crazy makeup and hair and getting ready to go, we watched the Florida sun rise and listened to our music at least 12 times. Once we were ready, we had our allotted 10 minute practice time in a ballroom in the hotel, then we walked over to the Peabody Auditorium. Once there, we stretched some more, prayed, and were viewing our competition - who were doing the same exact thing.
Then we performed. It's funny because you prepare so hard for this very moment, and when you are finished, you don't remember it at all - that's adrenaline for you. All I remember is that my trick that I have hit every practice, didn't stick. Of course we were so excited because it just felt good, although I teared up backstage knowing the mistakes I have made. We found out our score and were all so surprised and excited to place so high. By the end of prelims, we were 4th in division one dance.
My coaches' and teams' goal was to not do Challenge Cup, which is where the teams that don't make the top half of division perform again for a chance to compete in the top half. We exceeded that, and then some! Later on in the day, we made a few changes to more our routine even better, and watched Division 1A dance, which is incredible. Now, our new goal was to stay in the top 5, because if we ended at 7th place after starting our position at 4th, it would not look so good.
Friday morning was very similar to Thursday morning except instead of dancing in an auditorium, we were performing on the BANDSHELL. What an amazing experience it was. We ended up maintaining our 4th place position, ending among some of the nations best dance teams - such as decade division one champs - Towson University, Stephen F. Austin in Texas, and Charlotte 49ers - who only beat us by .034 - and they used to be our idols!
The trip ended with spending Saturday by the pool with the dance teams and cheerleaders that stayed at our hotel, and StuntFest, which is when the cheerleaders show off their talents with other cheerleaders and ate at BubbaGumps.
I miss spending every waking moment with my team. We all grew so close, and shared such an amazing experience together. I couldn't have asked to end my dance career on a better note. The underdogs have achieved goals and then some, and that is an amazing experience and something I will talk about for years to come.
To explain the title of the post, We were watching the members of the team do the dance two at a time, and I said to one of the girls that watching her dance was like a 4th grade field trip, because it was so exciting and just made me smile - such as that as what a field trip in 4th grade made me feel. What a VQUZESHUF! It was a coincidence because we came in 4th! So thats our new slogan for the trip! Only I would come up with that!
To see all the excitement, visit VarsityWired, click on 2008 NCA/NDA Collegiate Cheer and Dance Championship link and Search Sacred Heart
Lastly, tomorrow I give my presentation on Promotion, A link that I found that describes promotion c0mes from my own internship! Click here to see what great promo's are going on at Mattingly Baseball right now!

Ciao!
Andrea

2 Days

I cannot believe how fast time has flown by! We leave for Daytona Wednesday morning and the anticipation is killing me.

Our last team practice is tonight and it feels very bitter sweet. I at least knew after I graduated high school, I was coming to college and dancing. But as I am graduating college, I dont know what the future of dance holds for me. After 18 years of the best memories of my life, all I know is this is not the end. Maybe I will try out for an NBA team, or just take some classes in NYC.

ANYWAY, we have put the finishing touches on what will make the dance look cleaner and somewhat easier for us. We can't get too overzealous, because sometimes less is more.

You can keep up with all the action and how we do by clicking on this website: http://www.varsity.com/index.asp?article=3792

Wednesday is a very busy day. We are leaving SHU at 6 am to Lagaurdia, getting to Daytona around 11am, eventually settling in and then practicing all the rest of the day before our prep talk that night to motivate us for the following day and heading to bed around 10:30pm. I dont think I have been in bed by 10:30 since I was in 6th grade, so that will be tough for me especially with anxiety and adrenaline flowing through my body!

I look forward to posting all the excitement on my next post, I'm exhausted from from our 4.5 hour practice tonight!

VQUZESHUF everyone! :)

-Andrea

Crunch Time!

Well two weeks from this very moment, we will know our fate in Daytona.
Thursday, April 10 is the NDA preliminaries, which decides who continues on to finals on Friday the 11th. I am looking really forward to getting down there, as stressful as it is going to be.
Last night was very tough. We were at practice from 7:30pm until midnight, changing and improving the ending of our routine. Getting things looking correct with transitions, lifts, turns, and ending poses timed perfectly, takes a lot of time and thought. Sometime we get a little too overzealous, thinking we can do all these crazy tricks at the end of the dance, but we need to realize how winded and tired we are going to be, and also how perfect the ending needs to be because it is the last thing people are going to remember of a routine.
I have become extremely close with my team mates and I am very upset to see the season come to an end. But, this is our time to show a large audience what we have worked so hard on for so many hours & how much our hearts are into this 2:25 routine. Even if(knock on wood), we don't make it to finals, I am still proud of my team and what we have accomplished this year, and how much we have all grown as dancers.
We performed in NYC at the Hammerstein Ballroom a few weeks ago, just as an exhibition. We received some positive feedback from judges and improved upon their suggestions. It was a great experience to perform in front of a large crowd and in such a renowned ballroom where many famous people have performed.
This Sunday at 3:30pm we are having an exhibition in the Pitt Center on the main basketball court. This is a great way for many SHU students to see what we will be performing with in Daytona without getting on a plane! We would love to see as many people there as possible, dancing in front of a large crowd is much more fun than a very small one. So if you have nothing to do, come out and support us, we would really appreciate it!

Ciao,
Andrea

Canceled Competition and Spring Break

The most annoying thing on earth might be when you prepare so long and hard for something, or you have something you were looking forward to, and then mother nature decides to ruin it on you. UGH!

Fridays snow/ice/rain storm resulted in the cancellation of the Westfield State dance competition that we had scheduled for Saturday due to inclement weather . The whole team was really bummed about it, especially because the roads ended up being very drivable on Saturday, and also the competition won't be rescheduled. We put a lot of hard work, dedication and time into learning and perfecting the dance so the whole team would be able to perform in one regional competition, and not just the [national] competition team, and the whole team was excited and ready to go. To look on the bright side of it all, if you come to the men's home basketball game on Thursday night at 7pm versus Robert Morris, you will be able to see what would have been the top placed hip hop dance in the Northeast. Apparently, the game is supposed to be a huge because Robert Morris is placed first in the NEC right now, and Sacred Heart has beaten them this year. If SHU wins on Thursday, then they will be in first place in the conference.

Since we didn't have the competition on Saturday and the roads were spotless, I decided to take a ride to Quinnipiac University to see the men's basketball game (and you would think I get enough basketball at SHU). It was a good game, SHU won which was nice to see; but my favorite part was halftime. Quinnipiac had their cheerleaders, kickline and dance team perform. Their cheerleaders were very good, as was their kickline. It was very enjoyable to watch, but it would have been so great for us to perform at the game as well.

Next topic, College Spring Break. A time to relax on the white sand beaches of Mexico, the Bahamas, or Puerto Rico, right? Well, the 17 girls that are part of the competition team will be getting our tans under the lights of the Pitt Center aerobics room (and the tanning salon, of course). I can't help but to read everyone's anticipation for their week long trip on the away messages on AIM and not be slightly jealous. But this is the decision I made, this is what makes me happy, its what I want to do, and in under two months I will be having my spring break with a hundred or so of the best college dance and cheerleading teams in the nation. I was fortunate enough to enjoy two very good spring breaks during freshman and sophomore year in Puerto Rico, but I feel even more fortunate to be amongst one of the best dance teams not only in Division 1, but in the nation. So enjoy your margarita or Corona on the beach for me, because it is now crunch time until April 11th when we have a trophy in our hands (knock on wood).

Lastly, the last home game of the men is on Sunday against CCSU. I know many of you will be on your planes to your sunny destinations; but if you have nothing better to do, come see the last game that the seniors will be playing in at home. It should be a pretty fun game considering the devastating loss SHU faced during the NEC championship last year and the revenge the men may want to take. I am also going to assume there is going to be a large number of CCSU fans at the Pitt Center because it is not their spring break and they are so close. Should be fun, I'm excited.

Wish me some luck this week, it is going to tough!

Ciao!
Andrea

Double Header Saturday!

Both Sacred Heart women's and men's basketball will be playing on Saturday, February 16th at 2pm and 4pm; respectively. Of course, you can find the Sacred Heart Dance Team there dancing at both games at half time and some time outs as well. With that said, the dance team is holding a fundraiser full of very exciting prizes!

Our prizes include: a signed Don Mattingly baseball(as shown to the right) courtesy of Mattingly Baseball in Shelton, Connecticut, every season of Sex and the City(6 seasons), Entourage(3 seasons) and The Sopranos(6 seasons). Each of the boxed DVD set's will come with fun extras such as a book, shirts, scripts and more! Please come out and support our exciting fundraiser! We have really great prizes so hopefully it will draw a lot of attention and raise us some money for Daytona! Also at the game, we will be selling t-shirts; so if your a fan of the dance team, come grab one. The t-shirts read, "I Sweat SHU Dance Team". What a great shirt to wear to the gym (when you are actually sweating), to SHU's home football and basketball games to support us, or even to our local competitions.

Our last fundraising plan is called, "Embarrass your Favorite Dancer". This fundraiser will have cups with each of the competition team members on it at a table in front of Flik on Monday. Then, people can come place money in the cup of their favorite dancer. Whichever dancer has the most money in their cup by the end of the fundraiser will have to wear one of our old, embarrassing costume throughout one school day.

We are hoping to raise a lot of money with these fundraisers. Many people don't realize how much money we put into going to nationals. We have to pay for transportation to and from the airport; both in New York and Florida, costumes, airfare, competition fees; locally and nationally, and warmup uniforms so the team looks alike; all from our own pockets.

Well I am off to practice. Have a great evening and come see us perform on Saturday! Hope to see you there!

Ciao!
Andrea

And it begins....

Friday began our intense start to competition practices in preparation for Daytona. Friday we had a 3 hour practice and we had to discuss ideas of how to pay for Daytona with fundraising. Since we are a club sport, all payments come out of our own pockets. It gets difficult to pay for costumes for the regular season and competition season, air fare, hotel fare, local and national competition fees, jackets and warm-ups. We came up with a few good ideas, and one which will be seen in the next couple of weeks on campus.
Tonight is going to be another hard practice. Now that we all aren't sore and have recovered from pulled muscles and injuries, we are going to begin doing everything full out instead of just going through the moves. It is especially tough right now because we all aren't in "nationals shape". By nationals shape, I mean we are able to jump and turn and hit every move to perfection while still having enough breath to make it through a 2 minute and 15 second routine. Right now, we are all breathing heavily after about a minute or so. We are not used to this much movement and difficulty; but with time and hard work and working out on our own, we will all become more and more in shape.

Here is a link to a few of the companies that were promoted to be used by the dancers and cheerleaders at the competition last year! Hopefully they will all be back giving out some free goodies!


Well, I'm off to practice now. Wish me luck getting through this tough night!
Below is a picture of me jumping at the Pack the Pitt game! It is a little blurry, but luckily, it's not of me falling!


Ciao!
Andrea

A first look into SHU Dance Team

Hello and welcome to my very first blog!

This blog is going to be focused on my life as being a member of a nationally ranked college dance team. My goal with this blog is to hopefully open up many people's views of how much heart and hard work is put into every dance performance; whether it be at football and basketball games, different events on campus, and against some of the nations greatest dance teams at the NDA Collegiate Nationals competition in Daytona Beach, Florida. There is a great quote from Susan Jaffe,

"People tend to look at dancers like we are these little jewels, little cardboard cut-outs, and yet we have blood and guts, and go through Hell."

and I truly believe that this is a good definition of what our team is all about, and I want this blog to prove that.



This weekend the Sacred Heart University Dance Team performed at "Pack the Pitt", a double-header basketball game against Quinnipiac University. The team danced in front of 2,012 people, a record attendance for the school. We had two different 2:30 minute routines; one for each game, and 4 different 30 second time outs, 2 for each game. It is a very long day for us. We had practice an hour before the first game, and then 4 hours of cheering, jumping, dancing and standing. During the game, a teammate and I do jumps when a basketball player takes foul free throws. Never once have I ever had a problem with my jumping, but we were very close to each other at this game so we didn't block fans views. Mid jump, I immediately knew we were going to collide legs, so I ended up jumping incorrectly and landed wrong, and fell...in front of 2,000 people. It was awful and I was very embarrassed, but I got up and laughed it off. The whole team joked around with me about it for the rest of the game, and I had people come up to me after and joke about it. Good thing I can take a joke!

The competition team, which consists of 16 girls, came back from winter break a few days earlier than most students to perform at some basketball games and learn the nationals routine with our choreographer. Saturday we danced from 8:30am until 7:30 pm and Sunday we danced from 9am to 6pm. We left the Pitt Center Sunday night after 20 hours of practice in 2 days with pulled quads, black and blue knees, extremely sore muscles, blisters, physically and mentally exhausted and having to remember more movements and transitions than our brains can handle. The routine is very challenging but already looks amazing, and it has only been one week. We have 3 months till nationals, and am very excited to see how perfect the dance will look with many more hours of practice, and sweat. You can take a look at last years 10th in the nation dance routine by visiting the NDA website and clicking on "Div1 Dance" and click on "Sacred Heart"

So there is a slight look into what is going on with the SHU Dance Team. I am looking forward to continuing to post what is going on with the team throughout my final semester here. Dance is a huge passion in my life, and I hope this will not be the end of the road for me. I hope you find this journey to nationals as interesting and exciting as I do, and I wish everyone had a chance to experience this event because it is truly breathtaking.

Ciao!
-Andrea :o)

Here is a picture of the nationals stage, it is right on the Atlantic Ocean and gives us great inspiration to work hard throughout the season to be on that stage once again!