Frequently, the NC State Dance team can be observed on the sidelines of almost every basketball or football game. Hard at work, it’s common to see them perform a wide range of rigorous routines or throw T-shirts up into the crowd.
However, much of the team’s action and hard work takes place behind the scenes.
“We practice at 6 in the morning, so we’ll have a small circle up to get us awake,” fourth-year Julia Hnatt said. “Then, we’ll do a 15 to 20-minute stretch and go work on our technical skills. We’ll do turns and leaps for about an hour or an hour and a half. Then, depending on if we’ve got a game coming up, we’ll practice the routine we have for that. If we don’t, we’ll just work on technical skills.”
Pre-game routines present their own unique set of challenges as well and demand a great deal of precision.
“We have cadences or dances we do on the sideline,” fourth-year Courteney Sebastian said. “So in practice, we’ll do cadence drills, which is 20 minutes of us literally doing all 40 of our cadences with claps in between all of them. Sometimes, practices can be really intense at 6 in the morning.”
Beyond the rigors of early morning practices, the dance team also participates in a wide array of events besides appearing at football and basketball games. The team performs at charity events and competitions.
“This November gets crazy because we’re trying to balance basketball games and football games,” Hnatt said. “Then, we have a lot of outside appearances, like Turkeys for the Troops and Toys for Tots. This week has been really busy, so it’s hard to find time to also get your homework done and study for tests, but it’s all worth it at the end of the day.”
With a full schedule, staying on top of things can present yet another major hurdle. However, remembering the reward at the end of the tunnel pays dividends.
“It’s definitely challenging to balance everything [school and events],” third-year Maddie Rohrbaugh said. “It’s also challenging during national season when you’re constantly trying to work and to push mentally. But, you remember why you’re there and why you’re doing it.”
Beyond a love for dance, the impact the team has off of the field is also something that keeps many of the dancers going.
“For me, it’s the impact we have on other people, especially younger dancers,” Hnatt said. “Sometimes, you get caught up at the games and you don’t stop to think about how you being there impacts people. People see what you’re doing and sometimes you forget to recognize that. When people say something or when little girls come up to you and their eyes are so wide, you’re so important to them and they look up to you. That’s something that I find rewarding in what we do.”
Beyond its impact in the community, another strong quality the team possesses is the ability of its members to feed off of each other’s energy.
This combination of charisma, cohesiveness and dedication has proven fruitful as the Wolfpack dance team has placed second at the NDA College Nationals meet for two years straight in the team dance category.
However, despite this success, the Wolfpack is hungry to achieve more this time around in Daytona.
“Having a championship mentality at all times is something we’re really trying to stick with,” Hnatt said. “Going into nationals, we want first place.”
With a focused attitude, expect more great things in the future from the Wolfpack dance team.
