If you're lucky enough to have the opportunity to be on a college dance team, you're probably thrilled about having a loving community and family to share your passion with on campus. Or at least you were when you first joined. By now, you've probably learned about the many hardships and struggles you have to go through both individually and as a team throughout the semesters. These are some of the top struggles I face every semester.
1. Realizing you can't dance
You're looking around and seeing your new teammates kill a piece or freestyle like they came out of the womb dancing. You might be wondering how you even got on the team to begin with and think you're the worst one on the team. Don't worry, someone else is probably thinking that about themselves too.
2. Trying to learn new choreography
The choreographer is teaching super fast but everyone else seems to be catching on just fine. You can't see over the tall person standing in the center of the front row (damn that person,) and it seems like you missed a whole eight-count after taking a five-second water break. When it's time for groups at the end, you try to hide in the back but your teammate pushes you to the front. When in doubt, just throw in a meme dance move.
3. Thinking your teammate is cute AF
Oh no, you're getting distracted during practice and always try to ask them to hang out. You're secretly hoping you two will get paired together in a couple piece, or maybe even choreograph one together. All that extra time you'd be spending together would be more time you get to stare at them and try not to drool.
4. HELL WEEK
It's the week of the competition or performance you've been practicing for all semester. You know what that means: hell week when you practice every day and stay up until the wee hours of the morning trying to fix your set into something presentable. By this time, you're tired of seeing your teammates all the time but also love them because the experience has made you closer. Everything is more fun when it's 4 a.m. and delirious anyway.
5. Watching yourself mess up in the performance video
It happens to the best of us. If you're lucky, it'll be hilarious and people will make memes and GIFs out of you (after they're done laughing at and roasting you.) You can always return the favor and pick out other people who are mess up a move that's been cleaned 50 times or have silly facials.
At the end of the day though, even with all of these struggles, being on a dance team in college has been one of the most rewarding experiences. It's crazy how much you can bond with people over memes, roasts, and the collective desire to improve as dancers, as a team, and as people.
