DHSDT: What the yearbook won’t tell you

For 3 years now, I have devoted many hours to the Dominion Dance Team and it’s sister team in Seneca. Specifically, for the two years on the Dominion team, I have been asked many questions regarding practicing, schedules, and what we even do there. So i thought, might as well answer some questions.

How much do you guys practice?

We practice 5 out of 7 days of the week for around 2 hours each practice. Sometimes it extends by 1-2 hours depending on how much we want to get done and how close our competition is. Usually, we have morning practices at 6:35-8:30 am Tuesdays and Fridays, afternoon on Wednesday and Thursday from 4:30-6:30, and Saturday practice from 10am-12pm. So on average, we spend 10 hours a normal week, 15 when we extend a bit. Again, this is rough calculations. This does not include what officers have to do, sometimes spending their whole weekend to help out the coaches for hours on end.

What about homework? School? Family? Friends?

We have a 30 minute study hall before afternoon practices and if you’re smart with dividing up work and spacing it out, your work will be easy. Of course we get stressed sometimes due to extended practices or homework, but we can always talk to a coach to meet a teacher or work a little longer on something. A big misconception is that we don’t have time for anything. We actually have a lot of time to finish things or hang out with people. Think of this, we’re only giving 2 hours out of a 24 hour day to do what we enjoy. When it’s thought like that, it’s really not that bad.

Don’t you get tired?

Well, duh. We’re not superhuman. We get worn out at times, mentally or physically. But, everyone on the team has a deep love and appreciation for the craft, so we push through it. Obviously if we are sick we don’t show up or take it easy. Plus, if we really need to take a mental day, our heads won’t get cut off.

Who’s the best?

Surprise, we all are! Everyone on the team has their own unique flair when it comes to dancing. There are no ‘bests’ or ‘worst’. It would be unfair for us to compare ourselves to each other since some people are trained in different styles. We all also come from different levels of dance experience. Let’s say someone is trained in gymnastics and studio hip hop for 3 years, while the person next to them was a ballerina for 8 years, and then the person next to them has never danced for team or studio, just at home in their room for fun. All our different styles merge to create a single piece that comes out looking amazing.

Dance is truly something else, the positivity and close-knit friendships we’ve made had allowed us to better ourselves even outside of dance. It has made me become friends with people I wouldn’t even imagine myself talking to. Not only that, but it has helped me become a more positive and thoughtful person. Trying out for the team is definitely something I will never regret.

 

Dominion Homecoming

No offense but,

what?

Now don’t get me wrong, Dominion is way better then Seneca is. But with the way that they’re treating homecoming makes me have flashbacks of the famous Beach Blast. Homecoming is as ‘American public school’ as you can get, it’s a staple in everyone’s high school experiences. From the fun and good songs, friends, and partying, it’s obvious that people like going. Or at least used to.

My friends have been uploading instagram polls on their stories for days asking who will go with the answers almost always clicking no. I asked my classmates why they weren’t going and a huge part of it is that the DJ sucks and the fact that it gets boring. Now considering that i’m a sophmore, I obviously went to the dance my freshman year. I considered it a lot of fun but not because of the dance itself, but the people who went there. The songs were mediocre at best and some just downright bad, but we stuck it out the whole night. The next morning when I checked my phone, people were complaining about how the songs were bad and the movie moment everyone wanted, the slow dance, didn’t even happen. I feel like the DJ was told “Hey, we need you to play 2000’s throwbacks and a couple cringy hits. Oh yeah, no slow songs because we need to make sure they leave room for Jesus.” Now this is the main reason why no sophmores want to go and hey, I don’t blame them. I don’t listen to Silentos “Now Watch Me Whip” when I want to listen to quality music. Plus, I know some people went with their sweethearts wanting to squeeze one slow dance but ended up getting Gangnam Style instead. Not to mention that there was nowhere to sit. If you wanted a short break you had to get your 50 dollar dress dirty and sit on the floor. It would’ve been great if they added chairs considering we have a huge abundance of them. Don’t even get me started on the tarp that made people’s feet turn pitch black and now.  I appreciate the SCA trying their hardest to make the turnout high by even adding games, but this problems are with the admins. They should be more lenient. The turn out won’t be high because of the games and food (though it’ll help a little), the turnout will be high if they let us have some freedom, at least for night. We are constantly under extreme pressure and expectations and wait for one night to just let loose and fun. Now? We’d rather stay home and do homework then go to the staple events of the year.

That being said, have a good rest of your week and if i don’t show up to school, the admins kicked me out because of this post.