With nationals just around the corner, the NC State dance team is working on perfecting its competition routines while balancing its hectic performance schedule for basketball season.
After winning a paid bid to the National Dance Alliance National Championship, the women will be heading to Florida this upcoming April. The team will be performing three new routines on the competition floor that have never been done in the history of the dance team. This is the team’s only competition of the year, and they will be competing against other college teams from across the country.
The team practices two hours a night, four nights a week in preparation for its only competition of the year. It has one day of team practice and then the other three nights it concentrates on specific routines for the national competition.
“I’ve never experienced anything pushing me so hard in my entire life,” freshman Courteney Sebastian said. “College nationals are a totally different level of hard than high school nationals.”
As a first year member to the team, this will be Sebastian’s first time competing at nationals for NC State.
“I’m definitely nervous but also really excited since we have some great routines to take with us,” she said.
Alongside preparation for nationals, the team performs at all home basketball and football games and games. Add in extra practices with the marching band to be ready for gameday, and the team’s schedule is crammed, to say the least.
“I love the performance aspect and getting the crowd hyped during football season, but at basketball games we get to show off our technique and what we’ve learned throughout the years,” senior and captain Kylee Wideman said. “For dance teams, basketball is more of the dance aspect of the season.”
Wideman has been a part of the team for three years, and this is her second year as captain.
Wideman and Sebastian, along with the rest of the team, are under the instruction of head coach Amanda Roediger. Roediger has coached the team for seven years with the help of her two assistant coaches Jaclyn DeVita and Ashley Zimtbaum.
Roediger feels confident in the team in regard to nationals and feels that the team this year has the personnel to succeed.
“We feel awesome going into it this year,” Roediger said. “We are putting three routines on the floor which we haven’t done before, but we have the personnel to do that with this team. It’s a great group in terms of talent.”
With a little over a month to prepare, the girls continue to work hard at every practice. “We still have a lot of work to go, but we’re excited to get down there in April,” Roediger said.
Tryouts are held in the spring of the preceding academic year so that the team is established by late April. They consist of two days to learn different style routines and techniques before the potential members are evaluated.
“It is a very intense two day process,” Roediger said. “We will usually make a first cut, and if the girls make it past that, then they will come back and audition more individually for the final day.”
After the team is set, it will come back in the summer for a preseason.
“We come in the beginning of August before school starts for preseason week, and that week ends with camp in Myrtle Beach,” Roediger said.
The team travels to NDA camp in Myrtle Beach to try and win its bid to nationals, which it has been successful in doing for the past couple of years.
Camaraderie is one of the team’s strongest selling points.
“Being with all my friends is one of the best parts of being on the team,” Wideman said. “We all came into college together before it all started since we had tryouts in April. We also have a great and sound support system with a coach that really cares for every one of us, and it’s a great time.”
As April comes closer, the team continues to practice and perfect its routines with the hopes its hard work will pay off at nationals.
