College Dance Team Central News Links

Click on the links to enjoy the stories and as always, check the CDTC Twitter account for updates and to follow College Dance Team Central.

- Lenoir-Rhyne announces SugarBears Auditions (pictured): LRBears.com

- Bleacher Report: Meet the TCU Dance Team: Bleacher Report

- Washington State announces Junior Crimson Girls Clinics: WSU Today

- UCA Honeybears prepare for nationals: UCAsports.com

- EKU Dance Team travels to nationals: EKUsports.com

- ISU Bengal Dancers perform before heading to nationals: Idaho State Journal

TCU Elite Dance Team Finds Success

By Rachel Wilson
TCU Daily Skiff

It's the group's inaugural season, and TCU Elite is already off to a running start.

The team recently won dance awards at two national competitions, said TCU Elite Director Megan McDonald.

In March, the team went to the American Dance and Drill Competition in Denton and placed second, beating the Southern Methodist University team, which has won the past five years, said McDonald, a junior Spanish major.

Earlier this month, the team flew to Daytona, Fla., for the National Dance Alliance Nationals after receiving a bid to attend.

In Daytona, the team didn't score enough points to make it to the final round, but the team danced in the Challenge Cup and won first place, which secured it a spot in the finals, where they finished No. 7 at Daytona, McDonald said.

Mallary McGrath, a senior math major, said dancing in Daytona was a thrill.

"When (we heard) that we made it to finals all we could do was jump up and down screaming," she said, adding that both events were a great achievement for a first-year team. "Performing at finals was a great feeling and probably one of my most memorable college experiences."

McDonald said that usually a team must attend NDA summer camp to receive a bid for Nationals, but TCU Elite made the cut after submitting a video of the group's dances to the organization.

For McDonald, the team's biggest accomplishment is not the awards they have won, but the fact that the members did it on their own.

Members of the student-run team raised the funds for its Florida trip, approximately $1,000 a dancer for 14 dancers, completely on their own.

McGrath said this season with TCU Elite has been a highlight of her college experience.

"I competed with a local dance studio in high school, but being part of a collegiate team has been a whole new experience," she said. "In many ways it seems much more serious, and the competition is much higher."

McDonald came up with the idea after an injury in 2008 sidelined her from her TCU Showgirls rehearsals.

2010-11 Auditions

When: Saturday, August 28

Time and place will be announced later at www.campusrec.tcu.edu.

TCU Dance Team Shines At Fiesta Bowl

The TCU Dance Team definitely made an impression in front of a national television audience at the Fiesta Bowl. Below is an article on the squad from the Thaindian News and the team was featured in a photo gallery on SI.com as well.

For the full gallery, including the photo here, visit SI.com

The TCU Dance Team Added More Color To The Fiesta Bowl
By Meena Kar
Thaindian News

The crowd at the University of Phoenix Stadium was in high spirits cheering for their respective teams. The battle between the TCU and Boise State fans could be felt as there were loud cheers echoing among the gaggle of people. The TCU dance team were boisterous and backing their team. The sprightly, animated group of girls were all there to provide the needed support and encouragement to their team. The frenzied crowd were inspired by the TCU girls to add more excitement to the game.

The stadium was looking flamboyant with the purple color predominant on one side. The other side of the noisy stadium looked equally colorful in a patch of blue and orange. The young beautiful ladies of the TCU dance team added an extra aura to the Fiesta Bowl and turned out to be one of the much talked about aspect of the night’s game.

The mother of one of the three TCU girls went to the extent of buying tickets on both sides of the stadium to get a glimpse of her daughter over a wide range. She had to spend a good amount for buying the tickets though. The encouraging mother was sitting amidst the Boise fans at one point of time too, but to be able watch her daughter prancing and backing the TCU team from all possible angles.

With the presence of the TCU team, the excitement and entertainment quotient was present in equal dosage in the Fiesta Bowl. Even though TCU didn’t end the night on a winning note, the TCU dance team rather managed to carve a niche for themselves among the crowd present at the venue.

Former TCU Showgirl Creates Competitive Dance Team

By Anna Waugh
DailySkiff.com

When former TCU Showgirl Megan McDonald was forced to take time off from the team when she injured herself last year before tryouts, she didn't stop dancing. She started planning.

McDonald, a junior biology major and a dancer since age 2, decided to create a competitive dance team called TCU Elite. The team will focus on studio dance techniques and go to local and national competitions, McDonald said.

"I wanted to be a part of something and dance again," she said.

The idea came to McDonald in April.

Cristie Carpenter, assistant director of programs, said McDonald went through the Office of Student Organizations, which requires clubs to write a constitution and fill out paperwork. Carpenter said once TCU Elite became classified as a sports club, McDonald had to fill out more paperwork, attend monthly meetings and a manual training about risk management and hazing policies.

Whitley Leiss, a senior early childhood education major and TCU Showgirl captain, said the team and Showgirls are two different entities since TCU Elite is a sports club and Showgirls is backed by marketing, although she said Showgirls could compete if they raise the funds.

McDonald said 32 people auditioned this past Saturday, and 18 were selected. Auditions consisted of learning a one-minute-long jazz routine that McDonald taught, and performing the routine in groups for outside judges, McDonald said. The judges were Brian Stevens, a local choreographer who will work with the team after it is formed; Tara Roberts, a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader and friend of McDonald's and Rachael McCoy, director of the University of Texas' dance team, McDonald said.

Leiss said she is proud of McDonald for creating the team and following her passion for dance.

"Megan's extremely talented," Leiss said. "She knows what she's doing."

McDonald said this year is mostly trial and error, and having a strong team bond will help teammates learn from their mistakes.

"It's everybody's collaboration," McDonald said. "It's got to be all these girls helping and helping one another and all of us working together in order for it to work."

Annie Cummins, a sophomore entrepreneurial management and marketing major, was selected as a member of the team this Saturday.

"(Dance) is a very passion-driven activity," Cummins said. "It's one of those things that you have to love doing it, or there's no point at all."

McDonald said that while taking a year off was difficult because she missed dancing with a team, she said she did not try out this year because the team was not for her anymore. She said things fell into place because Showgirls focused more on cheer, and now she can focus more on the competitive side of dance with TCU Elite.

She said she wants this year to go well because she has put so much of herself into the creation of the team, though its reality has not hit her yet.

"Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that I started a team," McDonald said. "It's kind of surreal."