The whistle blows at an NCSU home basketball game. It’s a scheduled media timeout and the N.C . State dance team takes the floor. The team entertains the crowd with their flashy moves with ease. But what most people don’t take into consideration is the countless hours and work that the dancing ladies put into filling the lapses in gameplay in basketball and football games.
Alex D’Amato , a sophomore in environmental science, has been on the N.C . State dance team for the past two years. D’Amato is from Long Island, N.Y . and has been involved with dance her entire life. So the decision to go out for the dance team was not a difficult one.
“I’ve been dancing since I was three,” D’Amato said. “Dancing has always been a part of my life and I wanted to continue in college, so when I came to State I decided to go out for the dance team.”
The decision to attend State wasn’t difficult, either. D’Amato , being from Long Island, was unaware of N.C . State until she came across the University while searching for a school on the Internet with a top-notch environmental science program. She quickly stumbled across North Carolina State University and decided to take a deeper look. She decided to see if State was a right fit for her. After D’Amato made her visit to NCSU , her choice was obvious.
“I wanted to go to a big school in the south,” D’Amato said. “And I fell in love with the atmosphere here when I came to visit.”
The tryouts were just the beginning of a rigorous year that her and the other members of the dance team must endure. The dance team starts in the beginning of August before classes even start. The women dance from 8 a.m . to 6 p.m . for a week straight with very limited breaks. During this week, the ladies have to learn their routines for both the football and basketball season.
“We start in August with practice and its called ‘hell week.’ We literally practice from 8 a.m . to 6 p.m . at night with a handful of breaks. During this week, we run 3-5 miles daily, learn our routines for the whole year and practice them repetitively.”
Once school begins, the team starts practice Monday through Thursday, attends band practice on Friday and travels wherever the football team goes and dances for all home basketball games. The ladies put many days worth of work for a brief period of entertainment that many sport goers overlook. Now, with football season over, the dance team’s focus will shift to the basketball season and towards Nationals.
“Our schedules are pretty much packed year round because, once football season ends, we go straight into the basketball season and then begin to focus on Nationals. Right now, we are working on our hip-hop dance for Nationals and we’ve already learned one dance we are going to take to Nationals. We’ll practice these dances all the way up until the end of April before Nationals.”
After Nationals, the team can finally relax and enjoy a normal routine schedule without their rigorous practices. That is, until August, when they will learn the new year’s routines and dances for the ensuing season.
