You can catch them during football games, basketball games and their own dance tournaments, but their summer looks a little different from their season. This week, members of the high school dance team travelled to Purdue University to take part in the Universal Dance Association camp, a summer camp for middle school and high school dancers.
The team benefits from the camp by having unique one-on-one instruction during the summer, helping them learn different things about their craft.
“The benefit of this camp on my dance skills has been getting one-on-one time with a staff member to help us on new skills we haven’t done before. They would help us with our dances, too, by giving us corrections and helping us get better,” soon-to-be freshman Makenzie Richards said.
While the camp is tailored to improve the dancers’ skills, it also helps them grow as people and leaders as well.
“My favorite part about dance camp has been our team leader time,” junior Chloe Wiley said. “It is when we get with a staff member and really just get to know each other and our coaches. We spent a lot of time laughing and making funny jokes, but we also learned and talked a lot about the goals we want to achieve as a team.”
The dance camp has many activities, ranging from techniques to perfect their dance, to fun events to inject life into the atmosphere.
“We have ‘Crazy Night,’ which is when we get a camp theme and dress [like] that,” Wiley said. “This year’s was ‘Adventure,’ so the seniors dressed as safari/zoo keepers, and the underclassmen were different animals. We also do drill downs. These are military based commands which help us to train our technique, execution and overall performance when dancing. These are just a couple of things, but we also get team-time with one of the staff and they really help us to get to know each other. We played trivia, a brain game and we made a team poster to describe us.”
Center Grove came away with many awards. Jenna Boukal, Nova Hunter, Sophia LaRocca, Alaina Tedrow, Chloe Wiley, Elyse Beouy, Emma Clutter and Tessa Dice won the prestigious All-American awards. Sophomores Tessa Dice and Katelyn Graham won the “Pin it Forward” awards, which were handed out throughout the duration of the camp. And there was a drill down tournament that took place during the camp, won by sophomore Alaina Tedrow.
“Winning drill downs was really exciting for me because last time I was at camp I got out in one of the first rounds. The game is stressful because it tests your discipline, precision, timing and listening skills all at once. I was super nervous going into it so becoming champion was really rewarding,” Tedrow said.
Additionally, UDA has allowed the team to meet other dancers from different schools and states, which can lead to long-standing relationships, as was the case with Wiley.
“It has been so much fun getting to meet so many new people,” Wiley said. “It really helps me because we can not only work on the dances together, but even after camp, we will still keep in touch. Some of the teams we were with this week, we often will compete with during our season, so getting to really know them is fun since it’s hard to while competing. A couple years ago at UDA, I met a girl from Michigan, and we bonded over a very hard dance we took. We have stayed in touch ever since, and it was super fun just getting to know her through something we both love to do.”
The camp has also led to new relationships between the members of the largest fall dance team CG has ever had. The bonds forged at camp foster a team dynamic ahead of a season full of performances at sporting events.
“Dance camp has brought a new bond that I never thought would happen,” Richards said. “It brought me and all my favorite people closer together. They roomed underclassmen with the upperclassmen so we could bond. Dance camp opened my eyes to so many new people that I never knew before. As a freshman it can be very intimidating, but everyone was so nice and so funny. With just the four days we spent together, we have grown as a team and have had so many memories.”
