College Dance Team Central Turns Four!

Four Years ago this week, College Dance Team Central was started on blogger as a way to inform coaches, dancers and fans alike of news relating to spirit squads around the nation. Thanks to the help of numerous coaches, advisors and dancers, CDTC has become the top College Dance Team news blog on the web and even earned mention in the 2007 edition of the Dance Team Director's Survival Guide published by McFadden Performing Arts Media (publishers of Dance Spirit Magazine).

Exciting new changes are in store for College Dance Team Central beginning in 2010, so stay tuned to the blog and please send along any questions, suggestions, comments or story ideas to collegedanceteamblog@yahoo.com. In the meantime, take a look at our new logo above and Click Here for the first ever CDTC news post featuring the Ole Miss Rebelettes on November 27, 2005!

UNH Club Roundup: Dance Team Spreads Spirit

FROM STAFF REPORTS
Fosters.com

DURHAM — The University of New Hampshire dance team recently performed during halftime at the UNH Halloween football game against Northeastern University. Despite the overcast day the girls did well and showed their spirit. Later that day they also performed at the opening of the UNH men's and women's basketball tip off party. The UNH Dance team will be appearing at all Men's home basketball games for the rest of the season. Please come out and cheer them on as they prepare for their National Competition in January.

UNH Dance Team Official Site

SI.com Features FIU Golden Dazzler Vanessa

Sports Illustrated (SI.com) has featured Vanessa from Florida International as the "Cheerleader of the Week." SI.com features Vanessa and several members of the FIU Golden Dazzlers in 35 photos this week. For the full photo gallery Click Here

Former Montana Dancer With NFL's Cardinals

Passion for dance carries Conrad woman to career worth cheering for
BY Patrick Douglas
Great Falls Tribune

It's a bit like something out of a Hollywood script. A young farm girl from a tiny Montana town tries out and ends up being chosen for an NFL cheerleading squad.

But that's reality for Callie Yeager and her family after the Conrad native made the Arizona Cardinals' cheer team last summer.

"I thought it was neat that she would at least give it a shot 'cause she's always been real brave that way in going and trying out for something," said Callie's mother, Bobbi Yeager. "I thought 'It'd be great if it happens,' but I was always thinking 'Wow, I don't know.' "

Callie's passion for dancing began when she was 3 years old and first took classes for fun. She attended college at the University of Montana where she was a member of the Sugar Bears dance team and then went on to Las Vegas where she danced in the Tournament of Kings show.

In between, she decided to try out for the pinnacle of NFL cheerleading squads — the Dallas Cowboys.

"There's over 300 girls and they're all beautiful, they're all talented and they're all pencil skinny," Callie said of the initial tryouts. "It is intimidating but you've just gotta hold your own and be confident."

While Callie didn't make the final cut for the Cowboys in the spring of 2007, she took what she learned from the experience and used it to land the job with the Arizona Cardinals this past summer.

The tryouts required that the women showcase their talents in front of a panel of judges.

"They usually do it in groups of five and usually the first round is introducing ourselves," Callie explained. "They put the music on, and we just freestyle dance which is just moving on your own. No choreography. Then they do their first cuts.

"In the second round, they teach you a choreography portion, like something they performed at their games last year. That's a fast process. We had to learn and perform within an hour."

The second round of cuts comes the next day, followed by an interview process.

"We have to dress in business attire and that's the scary part," she said. "Then we do our final dance. They post the results on the Internet a week later and ... you're just sitting by the computer waiting for it to pop up."

Then the good news came.

"I couldn't even believe it," Callie said with a laugh. "I had to refresh the page to make sure it was me. Then I started crying. (It was) a roller coaster of emotions. Then I call everyone I know and they're screaming. It's so exciting, but then you realize that you have to move. It's nuts."

Growing Up In Conrad

Callie's mother Bobbi was a high school teacher and her dad Gary is a barley farmer. Callie was a four-year varsity cheerleader for Conrad before heading to Missoula. Even though her parents supported her love of dance, they took a sensible approach to Callie's future.

"I kind of wanted her to be a nurse or something more practical," Bobbi said. "She was always dance, dance, dance and I was always thinking 'Go for something practical.' Her older sister's a banker, her older brother is a paralegal and those are both pretty staid and true occupations and here comes Callie dancing her way through everything."

Now that Callie has made the Cardinal cheerleading squad, her path has taken a different turn. Her parents, avid Grizzly fans, didn't have a favorite NFL team but of course that's changed, and they plan to attend a Cardinals' game in December.

"She always did really well with (the Sugar Bears) and I thought 'Wow, if anybody could do this, she could.' I'd see the girls on the NFL teams and she looked just as good to me as they did," Bobbi said.

"When she was majoring in dance, I thought she could go all the way with it. I think that's about as far as you could go in cheerleading."

Down the road

Callie has aspirations to one day own her own dance studio, a dream that seems much more likely considering what she's accomplished so far.

Knowing that young girls look up to her the way young boys admire professional football players is something Callie doesn't take lightly.

"It's very special. I love it because I want to eventually open my own dance studio and teach young children. I looked up to even just the high school cheerleaders when I was little, and I wanted to be them and I know how it feels," Callie said. "It's just special to make their day and make them smile and make them dream and be able to think that they can do it, too."

Making the transition from small-town farm girl to big city cheerleader has been surreal, but rewarding, she said.

"I really miss home. I'm always still gonna be the small-town farm girl. There's 6 million people in Phoenix and there's 3,000 in Conrad with one stoplight. It's hard to even wrap your head around it," she said. "When you leave, you really appreciate what you had."

"Moving here, I knew no one and now I have 32 great friends," she continued.

"(Callie) was always just one of those easygoing kids," Bobbi said. "She always loved anything to do with dance and was good at it. I guess I should've known. I kept thinking 'She'll get tired of it,' or 'She'll outgrow it,' but she never did."

Idaho Dance Team Sees Resistance

By Cari Dighton - Argonaut
The Argonaut

After holding tryouts, finding an advisor and getting a team together over the summer, the University of Idaho dance team discovered their funding had been severed.

Because of this unexpected cut, the dance team has been struggling to get a start this year.
“I think they are doing a good job and I think the students should be behind them,” said ASUI Sen. Koji Moy. “When we have a dance team full of girls who want to participate, I think we should back them and give them air time.”

Moy, along with ASUI senators Zach Arama and Samantha Storms, has been working to make the dance team a reality.

“I think (the dance team) really does impact the school in a great way,” Arama said. “They are performers who honor our athletics program.”

ASUI senators started debate Wednesday with a resolution in support of the team’s quest to seek funding through the UI Athletic Department.

After the team failed to find support from the Activities Board, senators have now written a bill that, if passed, will allocate funds to the team from the ASUI general reserve.

The bill will be up for discussion during next week’s meeting.

“I really support the bill,” Arama said. “I think it’s a worthwhile cause and I think it’s worth supporting. It’s a case where the money we use to support the team is actually given back to the students.”

According to the bill summary, the money allocated by ASUI would help the dance team to purchase costumes, workout gear, dance tights and help out with other miscellaneous expenses.

“As far as where the funding is going to come from in ASUI, I don’t know, and we probably won’t know for a couple more weeks,” Arama said.

Arama said there is a certain amount of university supplied funding that goes toward the Spirit Squad each year. The squad consists of Joe Vandal, the UI cheerleaders and the dance team. Arama said since a portion of the funding for the squad had to be cut, the dance team got the short end of the stick.

“We are going to try to help them with that,” Arama said. “That’s our duty, you know. The students are what we care about. Even if they don’t manage to get money through (the bill), we are going to try and help them through the Activities Board to get money. We are going to do all we can to make sure they are funded.”

Another concern to senators is that UI is now the only team in the Western Athletic Conference without dancers.

“We are one of the only NCAA Division I schools in the nation that does not have a dance team,” Moy said. “We are the only one in the Northwest without a dance team. When everyone else has one and we don’t, we kind of look like a joke.”

Storms also emphasized the importance of the team to UI athletic events.

“Their sole purpose is entertainment,” Storms said. “They only exist to support athletics and entertain at athletic events. We need to help them get started.”

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."

UK Dance Cats Name Walters Head Coach

By Katie Jeffries
KYKernel.com

Dawn Duncan Walters, a veteran of the dance program, was named head coach of the UK Dance Cats over the summer.
A graduate of the class of ’87, Walters was on the UK Dance Cats and cheerleading team when she was an undergraduate at UK, including the first ever Dance Cats team in 1984. The Dance Cats said Walters has already made many changes to the way the team runs.

Junior Tara Kleinhenz, a member of the varsity dance team, is excited for what Walters has prepared for the year. The dance team will now not only dance at halftime of basketball games, but football as well. This will give the team more performance practice than in the past.

“Dawn actually creates the choreography rather than having us make it up ourselves,” Kleinhenz said. “We now get choreographers to come in and help with our routines as well as making sure they are sharp enough for performance.”

Walters has created a Facebook fan page for those interested in the dance team. The page is steadily updated with pictures and descriptions so people can follow exactly what the team is doing through the year.

“The biggest change that we made this year is that the entire team came to camp over the summer,” Walters said. “The junior varsity (white team) and varsity teams (blue team) now practice together and hopefully next year we will be able to take both the blue and white teams to camp.”

The team is currently working on halftime performances but will soon be preparing for the Universal Dance Association National Competition in January. With Walters, the team hopes to be led confidently into UDA Nationals this year.
Walters said the band director and herself are working on a performance for the halftime of the Louisville game set to “Super Freak,” by Rick James, for the band’s Motown theme this year.

“I’ve already had a good friend of mine come in and do some choreography,” Walters said. “His name is Ryan Maag and I feel that it is very important to have outside choreography coming in so that we can do the best we can at nationals.”

Most team members agree Walters has created a stronger bond between the team with her exhilarating personality and motivational mindset. She will continue to unite the team with each other as well as other members of the UK Spirit Group. The members of this group include the cheerleaders, band and dance team, and Walters has already started planning events to unite this group even more.

“Dawn has a great personality,” Kleinhenz said. “She not only is a very caring person for the team, but also for people outside of the dance community. She has an uplifting attitude that encourages everyone to do their best.”