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!
