Cincinnati Dance Team On Bearcat Insider

"PRIDE" Is The Word

By Margot Inzetta
Bearcat Insider Staff
Date: Feb 22, 2006
Full story with pics on: Bearcat Insider

With hard work and the "Pride" to be the best, the University of Cincinnati Dance team has become a force across the country. This is Margot Inzetta's first story on Bearcat Insider. Look for much more of her work in the weeks to come.

There are few sports at UC that have gained national recognition, and there are no sports that have brought home a national title three straight years in a row.

The UC dance team recently brought home their third straight national title in the hip hop division of dance at the national competition in Orlando. The team has remained untouchable in the hip hop category since it was added in 2004 becoming a three-time defending champion.

Assistant Coach and former team captain, Jen Endres explained the overall team feeling after capturing the title for the third year in a row in one word: Pride.

"The team felt a sense of accomplishment and feeling that their hard work had finally paid off," Endres said.

Hard work really does pay off, especially for a team that practices nearly everyday for four hours to prepare for the national competition.

Endres explained that the team began practicing every night for four hours in September and kept that schedule up until the national competition in January.

There are few teams that work as hard as the UC Dance Team does at perfecting their skill.

A typical practice for the dance team is a grueling workout that includes miles of running, technique work and hours of dancing.

Endres explained that the team starts off every practice with a 2 mile run. Then they work on technique and practice their routines for the remaining four hours. On top of their practice schedule the girls make it a point to workout outside of practice and eat healthy, Endres said.

"Athleticism is our biggest strength," Endres said, "We are in really good shape compared to other teams."

The team has no problems keeping the morale up during the months of the exhausting practice schedule.

"The girls have great chemistry and they all get along really well," Endres said, "If they weren’t here practicing they would probably all be together somewhere else."

This year, the team knew they had to step it up in order to maintain their title in the hip hop division. Endres explained that this year, the number of team competing in the hip hop division nearly doubled.

"We knew everyone had stepped up their level and choreography," Endres said.

The team also stepped it up technically to become more competitive in the jazz dance division.

"Technique has become a bigger part of the team," Endres explained, "Our goal is to step it up in dance."

Endres explained that the team hopes to get a national title in the jazz dance division to share with the title in the hip hop division.

The team finished sixth in the Division 1A jazz category.

There are 27 members of the 2005/2006 UC Dance Team.

National Champion Minnesota Dance Team Announces Audition Dates

2004 National Championship Team

February 9, 2006 - The University of Minnesota 4-Time National Champion Dance Team will be holding AUDITIONS Wednesday, April 26 through Saturday April 29, 2006. Those auditioning will learn a jazz routine, a hip hop routine, and be asked to perform skills including pirouettes, fouettes, jetes, switch leaps, side leaps, toe touches, and flexibility moves such as a leg hold turn. All auditions will be held in the evening, with the exception of Saturday which consists of the final audition.

For those interested in auditioning for the University of Minnesota Dance Team, please contact our event coordinator, Beth Frees, via email: efrees@umn.edu, or via phone at 612.625.0197.

In preparation for auditions, Golden Gopher Dance Team is also holding their annual COLLEGE PREP CLINIC on March 11, 2006. This clinic is a must for any dancer hoping to continue on at the collegiate level! Registration is at 1:00 PM and the clinic runs from 1:30-5:30 at William’s Arena located on the U of M Campus. The cost is $20.00 per dancer. Dancers will learn material, technique, and vital audition tips!

For more information and to register, contact Beth Frees: efrees@umn.edu.

Official Release: Click Here

Oregon Dance Team Wins National Title

Article From: UOregon.edu

Eugene, Ore.--February 8, 2006--The University of Oregon dance team, sponsored by club sports, won its first national championship on Feb. 6 at the USA Collegiate National Championship held in Las Vegas.

Oregon dancers, competing against some of the country's best teams, won in the hip hop division. The championships took place Feb. 5 and 6 and featured teams from the University of Southern California, University of California-Santa Barbara, University of Nevada-Las Vegas, University of Missouri, University of California-San Diego, University of Kentucky, Brigham Young University, Washington State University, California Polytechnic University, and Boise State University, among other universities.



University of Oregon coaches Karl Mundt and Robin Badstubner said the win was all the more impressive given that many of the other teams competing in the championships are funded by university athletic departments, which typically have substantially larger budgets.

"Our team did a great deal of fundraising to participate in this event," said Mundt. "We are so grateful for all that club sports and the executive committee have done for us, but ultimately the team has to come up with the majority of its funding."

The University of Oregon Club Sports dance team was founded in 1998 and was student-run and coached until Mundt became coach in 2001. Badstubner, a former team member, became a coach two years ago. This championship is the first ever won by a university dance team from the state of Oregon. The 15-member team also performs at all home football games (in the Moshofsky Center), as well as at some men's and women’s basketball halftimes and at community fundraisers and dance events throughout Oregon.

For more on the Oregon Dance Team Click Here

SLU Dance Team Earns TV Spot

Lionettes earn two top awards

By LAURIE SMITH ANDERSON

The Advocate

Published: Feb 8, 2006

HAMMOND — Pretty in pink, members of the Lionettes, Southeastern Louisiana University’s dance team, danced their way to bring home two top awards from the 2006 College Dance Team Championship held in Orlando, Fla., last month.

“My girls are very girly, so we chose a girls’ theme and wore pink for the hip hop number, which was choreographed by team captain Kandace Kurtz (of Mandeville) and co-captain Stephanie Sims (of Baton Rouge),” said director Christen Anzalone.

Competing against 28 teams in Division I of the annual Universal Dance Association national competition, the Lionettes won second place in the hip hop division and third in the jazz division. The team’s jazz dance was choreographed to Melissa Etheridge’s “Brave and Crazy.”

As one of the top three finishers in both divisions, the Southeastern dancers will appear on the national sports network ESPN sometime later this year, probably in March, Anzalone said. A film clip from the competition will air, along with interviews with several of the girls.

“It was the happiest day of my life, other than giving birth to my children,” the director said about her team’s victories. “To place in the top three teams in both categories is incredible. The girls were so excited, you would have thought they won first place.”

She credited the team’s success to its hard work and the leadership, coaching and motivation provided by Kurtz and Sims.

“It takes much dedication and love for dance to devote so much time to this sport. I am so proud of the team,” she said.

The Lionettes dance at all of Southeastern’s football games and men’s and women’s basketball games, and perform at various community events. They practice six to 10 hours a week and perform an average of three times a week this time of year. They even worked through Christmas break to prepare for the College Dance Team Championship.

Most of the girls have previous dance experience and do it just for fun, Anzalone said. A few, however, aspire to dance professionally and a couple of former Lionettes now dance for the New Orleans Hornets’ Honeybee Dance Team and the New Orleans Saints’ Saintsations Dance Team.

To qualify for the national competition, teams each submitted an unedited video of dance routines that was judged on projection, choreography, technique, group execution and overall effect. Anzalone said the Lionettes placed third out of 27 teams in the initial bid ranking.

In addition to Kurtz and Sims, the Lionettes who brought home the national honors are Sarah Bates and Lisa Martinez, both of Denham Springs; Amanda Bazile, Chalmette; Heather Crowe, Amite; Katherine D’Antonio, Kenner; Kim Dottolo, Ponchatoula; Robin Fernandez, Chalmette; Danielle Mistric, Baton Rouge; Brittani Noland, Belle Chasse; and Amanda Patanella, Independence.

Anzalone encouraged students interested in becoming Lionettes to contact her at (985) 549-3654 or e-mail canzalone@selu.edu.

UK Dance Team Prepares For Big Test

Hebron native, squad compete for national crown
BY SHANNON RUSSELL | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Cincinnati Enquirer

LEXINGTON - Abbey Schwarb was, in a word, petrified.

A previous commitment had forced her to miss the University of Kentucky dance team group tryouts, and coach Cathy Coyle had granted her an individual audition late last March.

"There was definitely a lot of pressure on me - especially because I was by myself," said Schwarb, then a senior at Villa Madonna Academy. "It was just me in front of Cathy and one of the captains from last year. That was it."



That's all she needed. After learning and performing parts of Kentucky's hip-hop routine, fight song and several cheers, Schwarb became one of the five freshmen to make the 16-girl varsity squad.

Nearly 11 months later, Schwarb will find out what it's like to compete for a national championship. Today the team departs for Las Vegas, and Sunday it attempts to defend its 2005 Division I jazz championship and third-place hip-hop routine at the United Spirit Association Collegiate Nationals.

The squad is taking a brief respite from its normal routine, which includes cheering on the football sidelines each fall and performing at home men's basketball games each winter. In March the group will also dance at the men's basketball Southeastern Conference Tournament in Nashville.

For Schwarb, who hadn't had an opportunity to be on a dance team until college, it's one exciting turn after the next. Sixteen years of dance experience have made her transition to the team easy, she said, and her 3.8 grade-point average has banished her academic concerns.

Coyle described Schwarb as someone with "a positive attitude," and her specialty in jazz can only be "an asset for our jazz nationals routine."

The Hebron native is just glad to be part of it. "I knew I wanted to be on a college dance team," Schwarb said. "And UK has the best team in the nation right now."