Stack the Stands

Kennedy Varsity had yet another competition this weekend. Prairie High School hosted their annual Stack the Stands dance competition that the Kennedy dance team attends every year. Interesting Fact, the Prairie dance team coaches are all Kennedy High School Varsity Dance Team alum.

                Kennedy dance team started their day off bright and early at seven in the morning. The first half of the day was the solo competition. There were over one hundred soloists, from places all over Iowa and even a few girls from Omaha Nebraska. Even with so many soloists the cougars still did not disappoint. Katie Kolthoff, sophomore placed seventh in the ninth and tenth grade division. Stormy Waldrep, senior placed sixth and Macy Schares (me), junior placed third in the eleventh twelfth grade division.

                The cougars didn’t stop after solos. They competed their jazz routine and felt great about it, and then they watched their biggest competition, Iowa City High. Iowa City High also did fantastic but since their music skipped they got another chance and performed again. After that the cougar dance team had some down time before their pom routine. They all hung out and did homework together in their homeroom, some took naps, and others ate, and socialized.

                Then they got ready to compete and perform their pom dance. They were the last group to compete at the competition. After they performed they thought they did one of their best performances yet. Sadly no one from “The Jungle” what the students at Kennedy Highschool calls their student section, was there. Shortly after they performed awards started, but before that they all danced around together with all the other teams. The Kennedy dance team tied for first with city high in jazz, and won first in pom. Not only that but they got first runner up for highest scoring routine of the whole competition. It was another cougar sweep, but sadly no one from kennedy supported them at their competition like they support football and volleyball. Next weekend there is dance team state solos, and then in a couple weeks there is the team portion of state. Maybe that will be the time for the jungle to stack the stands and make an appearance, and hopefully show the dance team that all of their hard work isn’t going unnoticed.

Perfectionists

               “Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance. Great dancers are not great because of their technique; they are great because of their passion.” – Martha Graham

 A thing most dancers struggle with is being perfectionists; this is a blessing and a curse. Dance is a sport where everyone loves each other’s imperfections, it what makes them interesting as a person, however everyone also loves, wants, and strives for perfect technique.

              Most of the girls I dance with that truly love and are passionate about dance are very hard on themselves, they could do a dance beautifully and still find one hundred things they could have done better. However, this is what makes most of them exceptional. The girls who always find something to work on and actually work on it until they are satisfied, are the dancers who transition from great to beyond compare, and sometimes they still will never achieve satisfaction with it. It’s a part of dancers nature to want to make everything in their dance piece or technique in general perfect, and that leads to a more desired work ethic.

Every teacher, or coach wants girls who are going to work hard and strive for perfection, it makes the team better and creates greater success in their season. However, sometimes this sense of needing to be perfect becomes unhealthy, and unfortunately it happens way too often. Instead of needing to perfect the dance and their technique, they try to perfect themselves as well, their body, appearance, and dancing is all being looked at through a microscope to find every possible flaw even the slightest ones. Often times the insecurity and feeling of being inadequate is carried into every part of life. It's a lot more common than people would realize and sometimes goes unnoticed.

             Although I find this strange that one would be so critical of themselves, I am one of those “perfectionists,” I beat myself up until I get everything the way I envisioned it, if not try to make it better. If I step off the dance floor and feel I didn’t have an outstanding performance I go home and practice it until it is how I wish it was before the next time I perform. I find myself dancing on average about 21 hours a week. I will stay up all night trying to make my assignment or project perfect for school. I spend all this time trying to make everything perfect and I still always wonder how it is that dancers value others imperfections and find them beautiful but can never except their own; but maybe that is what makes dancers grow to become better people.

Stay away from Concrete

                You may already know this because I mentioned it in a previous post, but the Kennedy High School Varsity Dance Team practices on concrete. Some of you may say “so what.” Our try outs are in April and we get in the full swing of things by May, practicing and competing all the way through March. We are basically year round athletes with our studio dancing on top of it, and dance is not easy on your body.

                Dance is probably the worst sport for your entire body right after gymnastics because you are using your body in ways it wasn’t made for. You push your bodies to limits farther than most would even begin to imagine. We are also jumping and landing and rolling on the ground time after time after time to make it perfect.

                All dancers get bruises but concrete makes it worse. Concrete has no shock absorption, imagine jumping in the air and landing just on your knees on the sidewalk. It would obviously hurt, and give you a bruise. Now imagine having a bruise from that and then you keep having to roll on your knees or things like that. Once a girl on the team gets a bruise on her knee it usually doesn’t go away till the end of the season, and eventually a majority of the team has blue, black, and purple knees.

                One of the things we do most in our pom routine is jump. This is cool until it is on concrete day after day, because the concrete has about zero shock absorption. I think you can imagine how this is bad for your body. When we land hard from a jump it makes your vertebrae hit each other and your tail bone, which you might not really feel at first but after time it actually gives you permanent back issues. It crunches your vertebrae together which also results in you to become shorter, however not a very noticeable amount. Another thing about landing your jumps on concrete is it is very bad for your feet, recently I got a bone bruise on my heel which is very painful and probably won’t fully heal until I have time to stay off of my feet for a couple weeks, so basically not until the end of the season.

                The dance team dancing on concrete isn’t just causing temporary issues and pain, it is causing issues with their backs that will last a lifetime. Dancing with even just a little more shock absorption like a gym floor or Marley floor (which is preferred by dancers,) would help tremendously in the long run. Take as many opportunities to dance as you can because I promise you will not regret them, but try to stay away from dancing on concrete every single day.

U of I Competition

This weekend the Kennedy Varsity Dance Team attended the long awaited University of Iowa dance competition at the Carver Hawkeye Arena. This was the first real competition of the season. However, we did compete our Pom at UDA camp this summer and received first with a bid to nationals. We knew that we didn’t want that to be our peak of the season because it hadn’t even really started yet.

                Ever since UDA dance camp in July we continued to practice three to five days a week. In those practices we speed up pom a lot making it faster and a lot more difficult. We also made a lot of changes to the choreography and formations. This process is a lot harder and longer than most would imagine. As a team we have to go through and reclean all the new parts. We make sure everyone’s arms and bodies are at the exact same angles, this takes a lot of repetition. We also have to work our stamina up and do the dance many times over and over again in small chunks, continuing to add on until we can do the full dance because it is hard to do the dance that fast.

                Pom was not the only thing we worked on, we also learned a whole other jazz routine. This took a lot longer than expected because there are so many different things and parts going on at the same time in the routine. Cleaning the jazz dance was a very long process with all the parts, and we didn’t feel quite ready for the competition.

                At the University of Iowa competition this weekend our hard work started to pay off. We did way better than we all had expected. We competed in the medium varsity pom and jazz divisions, and we got first place and won both of them. Not only was this a huge accomplishment but we also beat Iowa City West which is one of our huge competitors. Not only did we prove to ourselves how great we are, I think we also proved to our school how hard we work, even though not a single one of the students at Kennedy High School came to support us. At the end of the day it comes down to work ethic and team work and there is not a single team or group of girls I would rather do what I love with.  

No Where to Practice

The Kennedy High School Varsity Dance Team is very different from every other sport, or activity at Kennedy; one being we have no practice space. Almost everything at our school has the proper space for that specific sport or activity, besides us. The football team has a field, track team has a track, and there is a soccer field for the soccer teams, baseball and softball diamonds for baseball and softball, gyms for volleyball and basketball teams, a wrestling room for the wrestlers, a pool for the swimmers, even a black box and auditorium for the fine arts.

                Now you are probably wondering why we can’t use one of the two gyms. This is because volleyball and basketball get higher priority over the gyms than we do. The volleyball team uses both gyms at the same time and often the whole night the same as the basketball team during basketball season. They also have open gym nights for their sports and allow the junior cougar programs to use it.

Now your next question is probably, well then where does the dance team practice? The answer to that depends on the day, sometimes we practice in the halls, others the cafeteria, and sometimes the choir room. All of these spaces have downsides to them., especially with a team of 20 girls. The hallway is simply not enough room, no one should have to practice there. We have to stop practice when people are  trying to walk by which is very frequently; and we have had girls hit their head on accident on the pillars because there isn't enough space. The choir room is great because there are mirrors but there is not even close to enough space. When we practice in the cafeteria we have enough space except we spend 20 minutes taking down and putting back tables and chairs, and the floors are absolutely disgusting. The main problem is that all these spaces floor is concrete and dancing on concrete leads to more injuries than ever imaginable. I hope that in the future that the dance team can get a proper practice area. 

Off Time

“Don’t practice until you get it right. Practice until you can’t get it wrong.” –anonymous

                Every dancers fear is being told they can’t dance, they need to rest, sit out, or take a break. If you’re not practicing and others are they are making progress and moving forward, improving; while you are regressing or moving back. Dance isn’t a sport where you can just pick back up right where you left off with a year of not stretching. You will not remember all the small details of a dance over a year if you don’t practice or perform it, and most dancers don’t go to watch their group or class practice because the fact that they can’t be doing what they love with those people makes it too painful to watch.

                A way to make getting back into dance more quickly after you have some time off is going to rehearsals and sitting in and watching. Just being there isn’t going to do enough though, you must be attentive and mentally participate. In a ballet class do the combinations in your head. Rehearse all of your pieces in your head as well. It fires the same memory neurons when you do the dance in your head and when you actually do the dance full out. By working the same neurons you aren’t losing anything memory wise, causing you to not regress; and occasionally you can even make progress if you try hard enough. You can learn new things this way. It also exercises you mentally which can help with picking up choreography more quickly in the future.

Another helpful thing would be to stretch, do what you can to maintain flexibility; you lose it faster than you gain it. Make sure you do everything the doctor or physical therapist says to lead you to a faster recovery but don’t push your body over its limits. You have to make sure you don’t injure yourself more than you were by trying to get back into things too quickly. Also bring a notebook in class and write down the new steps and corrections, tiny details and anything that seems important enough to write down. This way you won’t forget the new things because you can practice them full out. Lastly you must keep a positive outlook. Believing that taking time off is the best thing for you at the moment and that you will be back on stage in no time will help as well. In all reality even injured dancers don’t have off time.

Shoes or No Shoes

“Dancing with your feet is one thing, dancing with your heart is another.”  -anonymous

                There are millions of different styles of dance shoes used for many different styles. Usually you wear the shoes based on your teachers’ preference or based on the style. For example for pointe you must wear pointe shoes otherwise it isn’t considered to be pointe. Tap you need to wear tap shoes otherwise there won’t be the tap sounds that make tap, tap. For hip hop you usually wear some type of sneaker because it makes the moves easier.

                 A new question in the modern professional dance world is to not wear shoes for lyrical, contemporary, or sometimes not even for jazz.  This may seem weird, how do you turn on a floor with no shoes? Well, eventually you build up enough calluses that you can turn and slide with no shoes on with ease. Working to get your feet to that stage they will most likely be sore, rip, and even bleed a little sometimes. This may seem gross but it is actually helpful to dance with no shoes. When you don’t wear shoes you can physically feel the floor with your feet you have a more grounded feeling. Having a better sense of contact with the floor eliminates bobbling and other balance related flaws.

                A well rounded dancer should be able to dance with any type of shoe a choreographer requests but also be able to dance with no shoes at all. This is especially important while at an audition. There are many professional choreographers that will refuse to work with a dancer who is will not dance without shoes. Things like these change all the time. Currently a professional dancer and choreographer Jaimie Goodwin is working with a shoe company Bloch to create a thin tight fitted shoe that feels like you aren’t wearing a shoe for dancing. Maybe in a couple years there will be one universal dance shoe.

Costume Searches Gone Wrong

“Dance is the hidden language of the soul.” – Martha Graham

                Most dances are not just dances, they usually tell a story. Everyone knows that dancers must wear costumes, and a costume can either make or break a story line. Picking a costume can sometimes be a very time consuming process and other times you fall in love with a costume right away. Unfortunately my most recent costume search was a bust.

                This year my lyrical/ contemporary dance solo is to a song called “You Lost Me,” by Christina Aguilera. The story line for my solo starts as I’m going through a break up and I was also cheated on by the same guy, the feeling in the beginning is still supposed to feel really raw. I have all this anger bottled up and eventually I realize that “he lost me.” I realize I’m better off without him, I lost someone who was bad to me and didn’t care and he lost the world. So in the end I know I don’t need him and it’s a feeling of sadness but also empowerment.

                So for this particular dance I shouldn’t wear a regular dance costume, because who wears a dance costume while they are processing a break up? So I started looking for a deep colored flowy dress that I could wear again after my solo. I looked for a deep color because it portrays more of a sad look. However, I couldn’t look for black because so many soloist wear black and the girl in the burgundy or royal blue or emerald dress is more memorable than one of the fifty two other girls in the black dresses.

                I searched for hours and finally found a dress I thought I really liked, it was burgundy lace with a few rhinestones on the bodice. When it came I was so excited to try it on. When I finally tried it on I hated it, it wasn’t flowy enough, it was too long, it looked awkward on me, and I hated it. So I spent even more time looking for the perfect dress. After some extensive searching I found the perfect dress it was burgundy the perfect amount of tulle to make it look flowy and I was in love with the beading work. I wait a month for it to come in the mail to find out it looks nothing like it did on line. The sent me a rip off dress it was burgundy with red beading that clashed and looked horrible and it was cheaply made. I have never been so upset with a dress.

                By this time I had 12 days to find the perfect dress, I found a girls royal blue homecoming dress that I loved. I asked her if she was selling it and she told me she would sell it for 300 dollars but since she is bigger than I am I would also have to pay for alterations. So I kept looking and found the same dress online for only 126 dollars. So thankfully I didn’t buy it from that girl. Then I found a girl from another school who had the dress and was selling it for 45 dollars and it’s my size. Now I have the perfect beautiful royal blue dress for my solo that will tie my story line together perfectly.

Why to Sign Your Kids up for Dance

“Every time I dance I turn into a better version of me.”  - Anonymous

                There are many reasons to why you should sign your little ones up for dance class. Dance is a fun way to stay in shape but throughout my dance days I have gained a lot of things besides athleticism. I believe that tiny dancers develop faster mentally and socially because of being involved in the art form of dance.

                The first reason is social skills. Your child is going to meet so many lovely other children in class.  This will help later on when they go to school because they won’t be as shy; they will know how to behave respectfully around other children and make friends. Also some of the friends they meet in dance class will be lifelong friends. My dance friends are some of my very best friends. Dancers are generally very accepting and supporting of others.

                Next is the discipline. Dance class is fun for young children and not very strict but they are learning how to listen and respect a teacher and others around them. They learn what is appropriate and what not appropriate behavior is. They will learn when they can talk and when they need to pay attention; and many other discipline things. This will be very much appreciated by their school teachers in the future.

                Another thing which I think is the biggest reason is it strengthens their memorization skills, and helps them learn faster. Being a dancer has helped me a tremendous amount in school. Memorizing dances like the back of your hand exercises the brains memorization skills. Memorizing things for school is very important you have to remember formulas and parts of the cell and history and many other things. Putting your kid in dance class is going to give their brain a head start on learning to memorize things quickly.

                Lastly they may fall in love with the art form like I did at the age of 3. Dance is expensive and time consuming but it keeps you out of trouble and teaches you how to have a good work ethic. Having a good work ethic is becoming more and more rare; so if you learn it at a young age its more likely to stick. I can’t thank my parents enough for getting me involved in this art form. Not only is it something I love, it has helped me be more successful in my school life and social life. So, do your kids a favor and sign them up for dance class, I promise you won’t regret it.

Cross Training

Many people don’t realize the strength it takes to be a dancer. The most beautiful thing a dancer can do is make the dance look effortless, but what most people don’t know is that in order to make it look effortless it requires a lot of muscle. Dance is one of the only sports that uses every single muscle in the body. At practice we don’t just go over our dances we also cross train. We do anything and everything from running, to insanity, to core workouts, to lifting, and more.

                Not only do dancers cross train to make it look effortless, cross training also helps your jumps get higher and makes harder moves easier to do. Leg strength is very important you need it for kicks, jumps, leaps, turns, pile’s, there are very few moves that you don’t use your leg muscles to do. Also you need arm muscles to hit moves or make slower moves look like they have resistance. Some floor moves require a lot of arm muscle also, to do things such as, push yourself off of the ground or move your body around.  Also a lot of choreographers incorporate lifts in their dances. So if you have to lift a person of a little bit smaller or of close to equal size of you, you obviously must have a lot of arm strength.

                The most important muscles dancers must have are their core muscles. Dancers do countless amounts of ab exercises. Dancers use their core for every move. To dance is to have maximum control over your body. Whether you are just standing or doing a complex move your core must be engaged. Balance is also another huge thing for dancers, and in order to balance you must be using your core. However holding poses, turning, kicks and other advanced technique things use and require an immense amount of core muscles. You must have a good core to have great control and make your movement look beautiful and effortless. Anyone can do a triple pirouette while hopping not everyone can do a clean triple pulled up without bobbling and suspend out of it. So don’t let a dancer’s super tiny body fool you. There is more muscle there than it appears.

 

Injury Prevention

Injuries are every athlete’s worst nightmare. Whether it puts you out for a week, month, season, or it is career ending it is the worst possible thing that can happen to you. Even if it just puts you in pain for rehearsal or a few games or performances; no one wants that. What most people don’t realize is that injury prevention starts in your everyday life with how you sit, stand, and sleep. This is especially true for dancers. How you are sitting, and standing outside of dance class can throw off your alignment making it harder to jump, turn, or anything technique related.

                Many people like to sit into their hip when they stand; I am one of many of those people. Not only does it throw your center of balance off, it gives your hip flexor pain when you go to do your activity. An even bigger problem it causes for dancers is it shifts your shoulders and ribs; so when you plié your ribs and shoulders shift slightly towards the the hip that you sit into. This may not seem like a huge problem but it throws your center of balance off which makes your turns a lot harder than they should be.

                Another thing is standing with too much curve in your back. Standing ways that aren’t necessarily “right” for your body causes more muscles to work, creating tension. So when you try to run or jump after standing wrong all day your muscles will not work as well as they could because they will be tense and tired, even if It doesn’t feel like that, because they were holding you up all day. This causes fatigue in the muscle and will slowly start to cause minor pain that may turn into something bigger. Also if you have an injury and stand abnormal on a regular basis the injury is probably exaggerated from standing like that.

                Now you might have though what I just talked about is crazy but lately I have been reteaching myself how to stand walk and sit and I have had tremendous results. However, it is very uncomfortable and when I’m not thinking about it I revert back to my old ways, it’s a long process but it will be well worth it. In just one week I already can control my ribs from shifting during plié’s which has helped my center of balance improve and I have had less hip flexor pain than I have had in the past. Injury prevention starts in your everyday life.