Practice Makes Perfect

Most of you know that as soon as school ended, I started 4-5 hour practices with my dance team. I've always coached either dance or cheer but when we moved to Florida, the school already had someone coaching a small dance team so I got to take a few years off and just help her out instead of heading things up. Well, this next year I will be taking over the team. Our school is very small so the team has always been small and never competed. I decided to increase our numbers this year and take the girls to UDA Dance Camp to get them used to competition and provide them with a little extra technique instruction. Tryouts went well and out team increased from 5 girls to 16, the largest our small charter school has ever had. I acquired a wonderful assistant coach who happens to be Kaitlyn's kindergarten math teacher. We did a few fundraisers for uniforms before the school was out and had a few after school practices to get to know the girls and their abilities. Once we ended school and uniforms were ordered, we started preparing in earnest for camp. Universal Dance Association Camps are 4 intense days of learning choreography and technique and also offer a competition for originally choreographed "home" routines. Most established teams hire a professional choreographer to create the home routine and have months to practice with their many returning members. With this being a new program, we only had a few weeks between the end of the school year and the beginning of camp to practice with all of our new members and to choreograph a routine that utilized their skills. And of course, we did not have the budget for a professional choreographer so it was just me and my team captain. Many teams also have a trainer who works on cardio and strength training. We don't have that but we do have ....Duane! Duane worked out a training regimen for my girls and came several days to instruct. Some of my girls nearly cried when they saw him come the second time.......but they stuck it out. :) Duane is a tough task master for anyone but for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade girls who have no experience with preparing for any sort of competition, he is a bit intimidating! Here are a few pics of all of our preparations.....