It’s easy for us collegiettes to show off our sweet moves while we’re out Downtown on Thursday nights, but what if we had to take those moves and perform them in front of the entire nation? Sounds scary right?
Beginning on April 10 and ending on April 13, the UGA Red Hotz, UGA’s only competitive dance team, will represent UGA on a national level and compete at the NDA Collegiate Dance Championships.
“It’s like a real-live version of ‘Bring it On’,” says Ellen Chong, a freshman Diatetics major from Roswell, GA. “As soon as you get there all you see are cheerleaders everywhere wearing their big ribbons and short shorts.”
Having already performed in numerous events around Athens so far such as DanceATHENS Dance Festival sponsored by DanceFX, Delta Epsilon Psi’s Diabetes Fundraiser and the UGA Homecoming Week Lip-Synching Competition, the Red Hotz have given themselves a bit of a breather this past semester, spending most of their time preparing for the competition.
So what’s it like being on a competitive dance team you might ask? Well, Brittany Couch, a sophomore Mass Media Arts major from Warner Robins, GA says, “It’s a really fun experience! One thing that I feared before coming to UGA was if I would be able to continue my training and I think Red Hotz is the perfect outlet for that because of the opportunities that we get.” The Red Hotz train at the local dance studio, DanceFX, located downtown on Foundry Street. The team takes an Intermediate Jazz class on Wednesday nights as well as a Leaps and Turns class on Sunday afternoons. Being supported by DanceFX, the Red Hotz are more interconnected to the studio than any other dance team at the university considering their features in a great number of performances put on downtown by DanceFX itself.
This year, the Red Hotz are one of 348 teams competing in the championships. Though the number of teams going head to head on the stage has heavily increased this year, the Red Hotz aren’t worried and are ready to let their hard work and determination pay off while sharing the upbeat energy of the competition with some of their other competitors.
“We have such a strong team this year and we’re all really excited about showing our new members, as well as people all around campus, what we do and what we’re all about,” says Couch.
For more information about the UGA Red Hotz visit their team website, ugaredhotz.com.