As the lights come on and the crowd roars with excitement, the Woodbridge High dance team performs at Nationals on March 7. This is the day when dancers celebrate all their hard work from the season and get to watch the other top schools’ dances. The Woodbridge High varsity dance team had been preparing and working hard since the beginning of the school year for this day. With all of their rehearsals and early mornings, they set themselves up for success this competition season. In their past competitions, they have competed in a total of seven dances, ranging from lyrical, jazz, hip-hop and everything in between. Dancers are prepared by performing at football games, pep rallies and their seasonal shows that they put on. This is such an important day for the dancers because they compete against the top schools across the country and show how talented all the members really are. Woodbridge High dance goes against hundreds of teams and sees how they place. There are also a lot of opportunities here to win money to support Woodbridge’s dance program. There from all over the United States to come and compete. Nationals will be located at the Long Beach Convention Center and is a two-day event where they perform their top dances all weekend.
Woodbridge High varsity dance took several steps to ensure they did their best. One of the steps they took was how they structured and valued rehearsals. The normal structure of a rehearsal starts with a 10 to 15-minute warm-up to physically and mentally prepare for their performances. This includes stretching, occasionally light cardio and other things that help to get them ready to go out and do their best. Then, depending on whether they are in competition season or not, the team either listens to judges’ tapes or repeats their performances to perfect their routine. The judges’ tapes are especially important as they are critiques from the judges on how they can improve. To prepare, they rehearsed for multiple hours during competition weeks, with competitions being almost every Saturday in February.
Along with this, another thing dance does in particular, especially when preparing for a competition, is bringing in their team mascot.
“Some traditions that dance does that might seem weird to other sports are that we bring in a mannequin head with an afro wig, eyelashes, and all kinds of accessories to competitions and treat it as our team mascot. Her name is Woot,” sophomore Zeynep Wilson said.
Having little traditions and jokes helps them develop a stronger bond. Woodbridge High’s dance team spends many hours together and sees each other almost every day, so they have been able to develop these tight-knit friendships with each other, which helps them increase their chances of success at nationals.
The Woodbridge High dance team also strives to make everyone feel included together so they can perform well while also wanting to build these lifelong connections. The team has socials, or hangouts, where they can all hang out with each other and enjoy each other’s presence without needing to dance. These usually include a variety of different activities, from holiday parties to hanging out at the pool, or decorating clothespins. These are all things that Woodbridge High dance prioritizes to make them succeed in every way. They also get this dynamic even when they aren’t organized. For many activities, including dance, it’s the little things that make the big differences.
“My favorite memories aren’t the performances. They are actually the little things, like the late rehearsals when everyone’s exhausted, the car rides and music jams on the way to the competitions, getting ready in the morning together, and all those small chaotic interactions add up to something meaningful,” varsity dance member Mina Kavandi said.
The memories the dancers make are the reasons why they love dancing as much as they do. They make up all the time they spend rehearsing for it. The time they spend laughing, huggingand smiling at each other always makes up for the time they got a count wrong or didn’t place as high as they wanted to in that competition.
The feeling of competing is also a feeling that nothing can compare to. From the moment the dancers start getting ready for the competition to huddling with their teammates at the awards ceremonies, worried about what the overall score will be. Hearing the crowds and supporters all their hard work finally feels like it has paid off, and they get to celebrate the team’s achievements with their friends. Qualifying for nationals is an amazing accomplishment in itself.
At Nationals, Woodbridge High varsity dance strives to do its best and come off the stage leaving no regrets. All the time they spend working on dances helps to ensure this. There is no way to accurately predict what the dance team is going to place in the competition, but the members are going to step on the stage and give it their all.
“My favorite part of the dance team has to be when we are getting ready for a show, and we are standing on stage with the lights out before we do the first dance,” varsity dance lieutenant and
junior Mackenzie Colley said.
When all the anticipation builds up and everything they worked for all season gets to pull through at the national level, it will be a feeling one will forget. They spend so much time working, and even when not in rehearsals, they are most likely thinking about dance.
Last year, two of their dances placed at state championships. They got third in the state with their medium hip-hop team along with third in extra small open, which consists of very few dancers in the category of lyrical. At their most recent dance competition, West Coast Elite Carlsbad, the dance team recently placed second in their large jazz, third in small contempo and third in medium hip-hop.
With all their dedication and effort they put into the sport, qualifying for Nationals was not only right but well deserved. It is an accomplishment in itself that they have scored high enough to move past regionals and state. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Nationals is an amazing opportunity to showcase all their talent and hard work.
The Woodbridge High Varsity Dance team is an amazing team. They are all so dedicated and hard workers, and Woodbridge High is so excited to cheer them on as they compete in Nationals.
