Purdue Dance team Finishes Season Strong

The Exponent Online

The Purdue dance team finished in 11th place at its national competition in Florida over the weekend.

The team won the Most Innovative Choreography Award in the 24-team competition that took place in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Tryouts for next year's squad will occur from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on April 22 in the IAF gymnasium. For more information, visit The Purdue Dance Team

Towson Dancers Bring Home Ninth Title

Team wins first place at nationals for 'Dreamgirls' inspired routine
By Brian Stelter
The Towerlight

Tom Cascella, coach of the Towson University Dance Team, knows his attitude is hard to believe.

"It sounds kind of crazy," Cascella said, "but we don't really worry about winning."

His team has been competing in the National Collegiate Championship for 11 straight years.

"In 1997, we went down there to win. And we didn't even make finals. And after that we said we're not going to do what everyone else does. Let's just go to have fun. And that's when we started to win."

They never stopped winning. In 1998, they came in third, and in 1999 they came in first. On Friday, the Dance Team won the national championship for the ninth year in a row.

They competed at the Chick-fil-A National Collegiate Championship in Daytona Beach, Florida. For the second year in a row (and the fourth time since 2002), the team won the grand championship as well, receiving the best score out of every team in every division at the competition.

Marissa Montanez, a senior criminal justice major, said her final time performing at nationals was both exciting and sad.

"It's been a part of my life for such a long time so it's hard to see it end. But it's also kind of refreshing because dance team is a lot of work," Montanez said.

This year's routine was created last year. But in Feb. 2006, "we decided that we didn't like the orchestration of the music, so we threw the routine out and started a new one," Cascella said.

When the movie "Dreamgirls" came out, the team decided that the scrapped routine would work well with the soundtrack from the movie.

"We were crossing our fingers, hoping that no other team would do a 'Dreamgirls' routine," Cascella said.

The team downloaded the soundtrack as soon as it became available on iTunes, and put the music and moves together before Christmas break.

Three songs were chosen: "Move (You're Stepping On My Heart)," "Jimmy's Rap," and "Fake Your Way To The Top."

Dance routines consist of three parts: jazz, hip-hop and pom.

"We usually start with pom because it's our strongest and we like to start with our strongest," Montanez said. "This year we tried to do something different so we started with our jazz section. It was a great opening for the routine."

Hip-hop is usually the team's foremost challenge. The team watched video tapes of James Brown to prepare for the routine.

Cascella said that he thinks the team's unique orchestration is a plus, noting that one of the judges wrote "love the old-school hip-hop" on their evaluation.

"You get here, and you hear 'SexyBack' every two songs," Cascella said. "Folks didn't even know what songs we were doing. It's kind of different so that's what we try to do."

The team spends the weeks before nationals perfecting the routine and cutting it down to a trim two minutes and 15 seconds.

The team arrived in Florida on Wednesday and flew home on Saturday night.

"We don't lay on the beach," Dana Richmond, a sophomore mass communication major, said. "We practice a lot during the day."

The Dance Team performed at preliminaries on Thursday and was one of 12 teams to advance to finals on Friday.

Finals were held at the Daytona Beach Bandshell, in front of hundreds of spectators. Elise Maher, a junior exercise science major, has competed for three years, and "it's still a big rush to get on the stage," Maher said.

Win or lose, Montanez said the team is about more than winning.

"It's about the relationship we have with each other and the time that we spend together, working hard together, being a part of something. It's not all about winning the national title," she said.

In fact, TU's Dance Team may not be back at nationals this time next spring. The team is trying to put together a trip to Europe. The tentative plan has the team traveling to England, France and Germany at the end of March and beginning of April 2008.

In a few weeks, the team will decide whether to skip nationals and commit to the European tour.

"We're all struggling with that decision," Cascella said, describing it as a "let's move on" versus "maybe we should come back to nationals" scenario.

Cascella is also talking to Armed Forces Entertainment about a possible tour.

Towson University Wins Dance Championship

WJZ.com

The Towson University Dance Team won the 2007 National Dance Alliance Collegiate National Championship, Division I title, and the National Grand Champion title on Friday.

The competition was in Daytona Beach, Fla. at Florida’s Peabody Auditorium and at the Daytona Beach Bandshell.

Tom Casella, the dance team coach said, “We’re extremely excited and proud to represent Towson University once again at the National Championships. The team spirit and cooperation of this group of young women makes them champions no matter what.”

The hyper-paced bump and grind precision dances are a combination of hip-hop, jazz, funk and pom routines. The Towson University Dance Team was the top seed going into the competition, winning the Division I competition beating Harvard, Xavier, George Washington and Wichita State. Teams from Japan, Canada and 78 colleges from the United States participated in the championships. Teams are invited to attend the championships based on participation at cheerleading and dance camps, as well as video qualifications from colleges and universities across the United States and select countries.

The Towson University Dance Team performs throughout the Mid-Atlantic Region, Towson University Athletic Department competitions and numerous community events. The team consists of 27 members and is coached by Towson University Professor of Theatre Arts Tom Cascella.

The National Cheerleading Association and the National Dance Alliance Collegiate National Championship is the world’s largest collegiate cheerleading and dance competition and attracts more than 6,000 cheerleaders, dancers, mascots and spectators annually. NCA/NDA, the largest privately held cheerleading and dance organization in the world, hold events for more 180,000 cheerleaders and dancers around the world.

WMU Broncos Break Out Their Victory Dance

Mlive.com

Western Michigan University's dance team wasn't sure how it would stack up against the rest of the nation.

Now it knows the answer: Pretty darn well.

The Broncos won the National Dance Alliance Open Division championship Friday in Daytona Beach, Fla.

WMU's score of 9.08 beat second-place Georgia Southern (9.06). Florida State (8.96), Southern Methodist (8.96) and Georgia (8.81) rounded out the top five.

The Broncos finished Thursday's preliminaries in third place out of 16 teams, and as one of the nine teams to move on.

``We changed the stuff they didn't like about the dance ... got up really early (Friday) morning and performed pretty well. It turns out we won,'' said senior and team co-captain Julie Stevens. ``The first day we came in third, which we figured was a good spot to be in. We didn't want to be in first and have everyone looking out for us.

``The whole time, before we got to the stage, our focus was on not worrying about other teams, just worrying about ourselves and beating our preliminary score.''

The Open Division has the fewest constraints on what a team is allowed to do; however, the competition is not considered as great as Division I-A. Next year, Stevens said, if WMU competes again, it'll do so in the highest division.

``Being our first year, we didn't want to come in with no one knowing our name and get freaked out (by all the big names). ... When one of the judges gave our score sheet back to us, she said `You guys should be competing in Division I-A.' It was a big compliment.''

Georgia Red Hotz Plan To Spice Up Competition

BY MATT BARKSDALE
The Red & Black

The Red Hotz, the University's competitive dance team, is in Daytona Beach today competing in the National Dance Association College Nationals.

The team consists of nine students, all of whom have high expectations for the exciting competition.

"We feel we have a really good chance," said captain Ashley Britt, a senior from Fayetteville.

"On Saturday (March 24) we had a competition and our routine looked good."

Last year at Nationals, the Red Hotz finished second and are hoping the team's work ethic pays off this year with a title.

"We are a very committed group of dancers and cannot wait to represent UGA at Nationals," said Orian Edelman, a junior from Roswell.

The Red Hotz team started six years ago. Many people confuse the team with the Dance Dogs, who perform at basketball games.

"We are more of a competitive team, representing UGA on a national level," said Britt. "It is the only team that travels to compete against other nationally ranked teams as well."

The group performs at many University events such as charity functions and philanthropic events for Greek organizations. These events include HERO, Tailgate for the Team and Greek Grind.

Although they only are considered a club team by the University, the Red Hotz are committed to a tough standard of excellence.

"There are a lot of requirements they have to do to be selected on to the team," Britt said.

"We teach a routine they have to do. Then they also have to make up their own routine and have some required skills."

The team practices two to three times a week for two hours each time. The Red Hotz recently competed in the Showstopper Competition in Atlanta, where they received platinum, the highest award in the show.

The lone seniors on the team, Britt and co-captain Valerie Barth, have been on the team since they were freshmen.

Without the team, college would have been a lot different for Britt.

"It's been great. I have met my best friends and my roommate right now. There are nine of us on the team, and we have all become really close and have so much fun together."

NC State Dance And Cheer Teams Head South For National Competition

After three finishes in the top 3 last year, the teams head back to Daytona Beach hoping for repeat performances of recent success

By Ryan Tice
The Technician

Reynolds Coliseum was abuzz with N.C. State fans Sunday night. The Wolfpack faithful were there to support the teams that are normally leading the cheers for the basketball and football squads.

Sunday night marked an annual event for the dance and cheerleading teams, as they held their dress rehearsal in preparation for the National Cheer and Dance competition this Thursday and Friday.

The mascots, who have their own competition at nationals, participated Sunday, and the cheerleading and dance teams welcomed the all-girls club cheer team for the first time.

"It brought in more fans, the turnout was great," senior coed cheerleader Jessica Brogden said of having the crowd at the dress rehearsal. "Having a crowd helps us out; it gives us a similar atmosphere to nationals. Normally we are performing at practice only in front of our coaches."

Last year coach Harold Trammel's coed cheer squad brought home national runner-up honors from Daytona Beach in the coed division. In addition, Mr. Wuf brought home a national title in the mascot competition. This year, Trammel expects more of the same to give the Pack its fifth national cheerleading title.

"The teams that have done well for [the University] are the ones that take the floor as a team," Trammel said. "Our team strength this year is performing as a team, instead of just going out there as a bunch of talented individuals."

The cheerleading team is not only going out to support itself and the University, though. While performing on the mat, each will have women's head basketball coach Kay Yow on their hearts and a pink shoelace on their left shoe in support of her latest battle with cancer.

After double checking the rule book, the team decided the shoelace was going to become part of its uniform on perhaps its biggest stage.

"We needed to show our support for her because she's been so great for us and the school," junior Mike Hudak said. "We want to show how thankful we are to her. She's a big deal, and we will be wearing [the shoelaces] and supporting Coach Yow proudly in Daytona."

This year, the cheer team is younger, according to Brogden, but also better.

"There [are] not many older kids; there is less experience," she said. "Normally, that would be a weakness, but it's really not because we have so much talent."

The dance team that took third in the national competition last year is also improved, according to coach Erika Holmes. Holmes expects nothing less than a repeat of last year's finish from her team.

"Our strength as a team this year is our technical skill, and that is what is needed to win," Holmes said. "We have definitely improved since last year. We are able to have more of our team doing the same skills instead of breaking things off. Every girl on the floor can do everything I need them to."

While the whole dance team gets to travel down to Daytona, only 14 team members are taking part in the competition. In contrast, most teams will compete up to 18 dancers, according to Holmes, but she doesn't see that as a problem.

"I prefer to have quality over quantity, " she said. "We are only as strong as our weakest link."

This is the only competition for all three teams and the mascot, so there is added pressure, both coaches agreed.

"As soon as we push play, that's it. There's no timeouts. There's no subbing people in, no seeing who you're matched up against," Trammel said. "This is our one chance to cheer for ourselves."

Holmes agreed and said hosting Sunday's dress rehearsal was a way to see who can perform under the pressure. "In front of a crowd is when I can tell if someone needs help in a section. I can see their skills under pressure," she said.

Brogden said fans can expect a strong showing from all teams in Daytona.

"We can absolutely finish better than last year. Last year we took second, and we had a drop. This year, we aren't going to let anything keep us down," Brogden said. "We are going to go out there and put it all on the mat."

UCA Dance Team To Host Tryouts

CONWAY, Ark- The University of Central Arkansas Honeybear Dance Team will host tryouts next week, beginning on Tuesday April 10. The dates of the tryouts are as follows:

TRYOUT TIMES
Tuesday, April 10th: 12:45 p.m. - Informational meeting in lobby of Farris Center.
Friday, April 13th: 5 p.m.-8 p.m. - Learn the tryout routine.
Saturday, April 14th: 9 a.m. - Tryouts Begin

All tryout activities will take place in UCA's Farris Center. Tryouts are open to the public.

For more information contact coach Susan O'Keefe at 908-2541 or e-mail her at sfokeefe@hotmail.com.