Life on the Siena Dance Team is such an amazing experience. Last year as a freshman, I knew that I wanted to tryout for the dance team because for most of my life, dance was all I knew. Also, being a science major I knew I needed an outlet to have as a break from schoolwork. So I went to tryouts. When I entered the tryouts, I first met the coaches, Meegan and Diana, who are very warm and welcoming, but still a little intimidating. Next, we had a little warm up; and then we were split up into groups to learn parts of a jazz, kickline and hip hop dance. At first it was a little overwhelming trying to remember all of the dance combos but all the other girls and captains were so helpful. After learning all of the dances we had some time to work with our small groups of four or five people to perfect each dance. After each group had performed for the coaches we waited to find out who made the team. I was extremely excited to find out that I had made it.
Once practices had started up it was great getting the opportunity to talk to the other girls and I made so many friends in such a short period of time. In the beginning of the semester practices were wednesdays, fridays, and saturdays and they included learning dances and sidelines. Sidelines are where we do little cheers and such for the womens and mens basketball games. Usually our first performance is at the pep rally where both the mens and womens basketball teams are introduced. From there on we continued to perfect our routines. For each game, we perform at half-time and during a timeout to keep the audience entertained. Fast forward to spring semester and things start to speed up. Many basketball games are occurring at this time so sometimes it is hard to keep up but when I have the team and my supportive friends that cheer me on it makes everything better. We try to mix up our hairstyles once in a while and always have vibrant makeup so everyone in the audience can see us and once the mac tournament starts we bring out the glitter.
The new season has only just begun and I can’t wait to form more connections with new people on the team and learn all of our exciting new dances. This team has become another family for me and I would do anything and everything for them.