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
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
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
Monday, February 4, 2008
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
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
Sunday, January 27, 2008
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,
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!
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!
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