After piling 13 girls into four cars and driving the seven hours from Morgantown to Kentucky, the West Virginia University Dance Team arrived for their first summer dance camp at the University of Louisville.
The National Dance Association and National Cheer Association 2009 Summer Camp was held Saturday, Aug. 1 through Monday, Aug. 3.
Upon arriving, the girls got straight to work learning the routine they would perform, only three days later, in a mere two hours. After rehearsing until 10 p.m. on Saturday, the girls were up early the following morning to rehearse their routine and take master classes in pom, jazz, and hip-hop.
Sunday night, they were able to showcase the team dance they had learned the day before in a mock competition.
Monday, the team performed their routine in the overall competition against ten other schools, including Fairmont State University.
After going out for their mock evaluation and not dancing up to their capabilities, the girls then practiced all night to counts because I’d forgotten to give them their music. I told them if they didn’t stop psyching themselves out, they wouldn’t do any better in the competition. When the actual competition came around Monday morning, I’m not sure what was said or if it was just the fact they were in their WVU Uniforms that gave them the newly found confidence, but they completely stunned the crowd by their performance. I’m sure that after seeing them perform the day before, the other teams probably weren’t expecting such an amazing performance,said Erin Harold, WVU Dance Team Head Coach.
We didn’t really know what to expect going into it because this was our first year doing a summer camp. As we got there it was my job as a captain to keep the spirits up when we would get tired and to keep pushing everyone even when we were at our sorest points from dancing all day long. In the end, all the hard work and strain on our muscles from the weekend really paid off,said senior Shannon Windisch, a PR major from Pittsburgh, Pa., and captain of the dance team.
The team brought five awards back to Morgantown. In the team competition, they won a first place gold-bid to the 2010 NDA /NCA Nationalsto be held in Daytona Beach, Fla.and theAll-Around Teamaward. In the individual competition, freshman Samantha Syzmanski, a business major from Pittsburgh, Pa., won the top-gun turns award and senior captain Radine Corely, a sports management major from Morgantown, won the top-gun jumps award. In addition, senior Samantha Boley, an interior design major from Laptata, Md., Corely and Windisch were selected to dance on theAll-American Team.
In order to receive the gold-bid to nationals, the team needed to take at least 13 dancers to the three-day, overnight camp. Receiving the gold-bid provides the team with six hotel rooms for four nights, priority practice time and seating at the national competition and reduced registration fees. They are also exempt from submitting a video audition.
Every year, when we go to nationals its always a challenge to try and fundraise $18,000. Doing well at this camp not only would help us raise some of that money but to also help get our school name out there, and make ourselves more recognizable in the competition world,Windisch said.