The Keene State College Dance Team held tryouts April 15 to 17 in the Spaulding Gymnasium in hopes of strengthening the team.
“I want to establish a good community that us inside the team feels as well as others, from the outside,” Co-Captain and junior Hannah Tobin said. “If they look at the dance team, they’re like, ‘Oh, wow, look at that, that’s a great group of friends.”’
Although the Dance Team did not gain new members, current members tried out to secure their spots.
“Spring tryouts are usually very small, so we don’t have many new people,” Tobin said, “We’re hoping for the fall we do and that we’ll feel more confident in picking people then.”
Co-Captain Maya Mahoney said the three days of auditions consisted of learning choreography and getting to know potential members.
“Hannah and I decided to both choreograph around 30 seconds of the same song,” Mahoney said. “One day we taught my half and then the next day we taught Hannah’s half… We did a short palm chant type thing just to get people a little bit of an insider to [choreo] of the team.”
Mahoney added, “On the third day we have everyone do the actual tryout where we have people… perform the dance and show any other skills. Also, we ask everyone three questions to see who they are as a person and as a dancer and how they might be as a teammate.”
According to Mahoney, there will be another tryout in September and prior-dance experience is not required.
“We have someone on [the team] who was only a cheerleader before, we have people who’ve never even done hip-hop in their life, and then they just come out and figure out they can do it, and then they end up making the team,” Mahoney said.
Tobin said the Dance Team welcomed incoming first-years to try out, although it did not work out this time.
“We had a few incoming freshmen message us about trying out for spring tryouts and if they were able to make it here to do them, or we even tried to have them do videos and send in videos,” Tobin said. “ It didn’t end up working out this year, but anyone can try out at any time if you’re an admitted student.”
Mahoney said the team offers a genre of dance not usually explored in classrooms at KSC.
“Hip-hop is something they really want to do that’s not usually offered in dance programs,” Mahoney said. “… People who also just want to have a hip-hop aspect to their life and then being on a team and having that drive, if that’s something that interests them then we would love to have them on a team.”
Similarly, Tobin said the Dance Team offers a space to grow as a dancer and have a group to grow with.
“We have a big family relationship, and it’s really great to get out of a day of classes or rehearsals and just have that constant in your life,” Tobin said. “A lot of them probably were previously dancers and a lot of them are probably dance majors and they probably see dance as their way to express themselves and relieve stress.”
According to Tobin, the biggest goal the Dance Team will be striving towards is competing well in nationals and fundraising for the trip.
“I want to show that we have fun but we also work hard and I want that to show in nationals this year,” Tobin said. “I’m really pushing to make hip hop finals at nationals. We made game day finals last year which was amazing since it was only our second year in Keene State history of doing game day.”
Nicole Dumont can be contacted at
ndumont@kscequinox.com
