Dance/Drill Team ?'s

[mselly13]

For those of you who are parents of a child on a high school dance/drill team. What are your tryouts like? Who makes up the tryout routine? Who judges? How many girls make the team? Do girls have to try out each year or just the first year?


Our team had tryouts this last Saturday. The routine was made up by an outgoing Sr. who was not an officer. The Captain was only a Jr. this year so she was trying out for officer again. The other officer broke her toe 3 weeks ago and so supposedly couldn't make up the routine. The girls try out to make the team their first year. They have to be on the team for at least one year before they can try out for officer, but they have to try out for officer every year they want to be one.

This year is was judged by 2 ex members. One graduated in 2004, the other was a 2005 graduate. They both knew only one girl who was trying out first time(she was the little sister of a girl that was on the team with them). We had 13 girls try out and only 10 new girls made it. One of the girls who didn't make it was because of weight. They put on her try out form "weight out of proportion" We have had big girls in the past who didn't make it but it was never actually stated that it was because of weight. We had one girl make the sqaud last year that still doesn't even have a uniform because they don't have one big enough for her and because she hasn't made any of the routines yet. Uniforms are only worn during football season and one routine for spring show. Costumes are worn for competition and then all competition routines are done at spring show.

We had 5 girls who tried out for officer and only 3 made it. Don't know why the other 2 didn't make it. I know the amount of officers differs from year to year. A few years back we had 7 officers, this last year we only had 2. Last year, of the 4 that tried out the 2 that didn't make it were for wierd reasons. One girl didn't make it because she had been arrested for shoplifting in December and the girl who made Captain found out about it and made sure the whole squad knew about it the week of try outs. I felt sorry for this girl, she made a mistake, got caught and paid a price. She paid a fine and served community service and 3 months probation. It should not have reflected on her standing on the team as it didn't affect the team. The other girl who didn't make was because some of the girls complained and said she made fun of their weight.
My daughter didn't make officer her sophmore going into Junior year because she flashed a girl in the car behind us while on a trip her sophmore year. I thought it was ridiculous.
So what is it like on your team. I think our judges are just for looks and that the director actually makes these decisions before hand. What is it like on your team?

 

[JodiR]

My dd had her 3rd year of try-outs just last month. I believe the coach made up the routine. The judges were past dance team members and coaches from other towns. Try-outs are held once a year and you do try out each year.

My dd was ranked #1 out of all the participants. Our school likes to place everyone that trys out. We have fall, winter and competition squads. Not eveyone makes every team (especially competition). My dd made all 3 teams as she has every year.

She will have a busy year since she gets to audition for the All Stars performance in November (they perform in March at a state baskektball game) and perform in the Capital One Bowl on January 1st. Plus many other performances and local competitions. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

 

[missypie]

Our school district is brilliant when it comes to cheer and dance tryouts (I have one dancer and one cheerleader.) Tryouts are always on a Friday afternoon. Every day that week they have "tryout camp" where the outgoing team members (e.g. seniors for HS drill team) teach the candidates a dance/routine that was made up by the officers.

The three judges are third parties who don't know the girls (e.g. even the middle school judges were ladies who judge cheer competitions). Two school adminstrators are in the room (but do not judge) but the drill team/ cheer sponsor/coach does not ever SEE the try outs. Girls do the routine, then skills (splits, jumps, etc.) All auditions are videotaped in case of future questions.

For officer, they have to put together this whole notebook with essays, etc. Then they do a solo, skills, and have individual interviews.

Neighboring school districts have had huge issues with cheer try outs but ours are so well run that there are no problems.

As for weight....it's such a hard issue. On our varsity drill team, the two girls who consistantly didn't make most of the dances were the two heaviest girls. On DD's JV team, there is one tall, big boned girl who made most of the dances. There one short heavy one who hardly made any dances. I think the problem is the required uniformity of drill team. If it's a high kick, and you have short thick legs, you aren't going to look like the other girls in the kick line. I'm such a softie that I'd let every girl dance every dance, but I know that lots of time, the heavier girls do attract more attention visually in an activity that values uniformity.

 

[mselly13]

How big is her squad? I ask because you said they have different competition squads.

We have 20 girls for next year. But our school I think has around 800 kids.

They try out in April. Football season of course is in the fall. Then comes competition season. Sometimes she starts competition routines right after football, sometimes she doesn't. They always go to competition in the next town over, which is always the first weekend in Feb.
Sometimes they also go to other comps. This year they didn't. Last year we went on a cruise in May. The year before we went to comp. in San Antonio. The year before we went to comp in Louisana. She says they are going to WDW next year but we all know they won't. There is no way with gas prices that they can get a firm price on airline so we don't see them going. If she takes a bus maybe, but been with this group long enough and know the director well enough to know that she is just building them up to let them down. She also always takes them to a comp that she know they will win. Comp this year, there were no other teams in their size category. The girls go in a win grand champion without realizing they had no competition.

 

[mselly13]

Our school district is brilliant when it comes to cheer and dance tryouts (I have one dancer and one cheerleader.) Tryouts are always on a Friday afternoon. Every day that week they have "tryout camp" where the outgoing team members (e.g. seniors for HS drill team) teach the candidates a dance/routine that was made up by the officers.

The three judges are third parties who don't know the girls (e.g. even the middle school judges were ladies who judge cheer competitions). Two school adminstrators are in the room (but do not judge) but the drill team/ cheer sponsor/coach does not ever SEE the try outs. Girls do the routine, then skills (splits, jumps, etc.) All auditions are videotaped in case of future questions.

For officer, they have to put together this whole notebook with essays, etc. Then they do a solo, skills, and have individual interviews.

Neighboring school districts have had huge issues with cheer try outs but ours are so well run that there are no problems.

As for weight....it's such a hard issue. On our varsity drill team, the two girls who consistantly didn't make most of the dances were the two heaviest girls. On DD's JV team, there is one tall, big boned girl who made most of the dances. There one short heavy one who hardly made any dances. I think the problem is the required uniformity of drill team. If it's a high kick, and you have short thick legs, you aren't going to look like the other girls in the kick line. I'm such a softie that I'd let every girl dance every dance, but I know that lots of time, the heavier girls do attract more attention visually in an activity that values uniformity.

We do the whole camp thing also, but then try outs are Saturday morning. And the director and the judges and one sr. to run the music are the only ones allowed in the room to watch.
For officer, they have to make up their own solo routine, do a group kick routine and an interview with the judges. But, the whole squad that week fills out a form sorta like questions about each candidate. The girls are allowed to write down whatever they want. They can put Susie is a slut if they want, and the judges get to see all these forms.

We only have the one team so it's supposed to be considered Varsity. Cuts are made for each routine for both football and competition seasons.

Now a question about lettering. Our girls earn their Letter the third year. So, at the beginning of their third year they get to order their jackets with patches. However, football and cheer Letter their first year. Band, is way different too. Band, you have to go to so many competitions and score certain points for like 2 years. I don't know how track or Basketball letters.

 

[JodiR]

Not sure if you were taling to me or not on the different squads...but there are around 700 kids in the high school. We have a fall team that performs at football games and homecoming activities. The winter team is for basketball games. Competition squad competes all year long. Most girls are on all 3 teams. If you want to be on competition, you have to be on fall or winter.

 

[simba928]

I am on my school's color guard. I'm a senior this year, so I've gone through tryouts several times.

The week leading up to tryouts (Monday through Thursday) we have practice. Everyone has to tryout, even people who were in the guard last year. We learn basics (marching, drop spins, toss, etc.) and a routine. This is tough on the old ones because Monday and Tuesday is pretty much basics the entire time and Wednesday and Thursday is split between basics and routine, which was made up by our instructor. Old ones already know the basics, so its pretty much us going through the motions and helping the new ones trying out for the first time. The actual day of tryouts used to be Saturday morning. Now its Friday evening. Everyone goes and they take 3 (randomly selected order, we literally draw numbers out of a hat) at a time into the gym. Everyone else waits in the lobby. The guard instructor, her mom (who is guard instructor at another local school), the band director, and 3 judges are in the room. The judges are usually people that graduated from our guard instructor's mom's school. Our instructor went to school there and still works with the guard so she has her contacts. They don't know us, we don't know them. Our instructor is just in the room to start the music, count us off, tell us where to go and what comes next. At the end, they calculate the scores, post a list of our numbers (to keep it "anonymous", but everyone knows who made it and who didn't anyways, but whatever) and then have us go back into the gym. We sit, look over our evaluation sheets (where we were evaluated on appearance, attitude, attempts, and actual execution), and then we can go.

People trying out for captain have to try out for regular guard first. They must also make up a routine. Some years its completely make up the routine from start to finish to a specific song decided by our instructor. THis year, though, it was learn a routine (in addition to the regular try out routine), with sections missing. You then had to fill in those sections with whatever you wanted. I think it was 2 counts of 16 and then at the end you had to do any toss you wanted. They had to go into the gym with the same people that are in there before. The band director says "Person 1 is in her 3rd year of guard. She does this, that, and the other clubs, blah blah blah." Then they do their routine and answer questions from the judges such as "If there was a conflict between members of the guard, how would you handle it?"

This year we had I think around 26 people tryout and 2 didn't make it. If there is someone they think isn't quite good enough, but has potential to get better, they'll put them in at alternate (they do everything but the first song during shows and learn all the routines anyways). There is no set number that they take. Its just "Is this person good enough and try hard enough to add to the band or will they detract from it?"

Weight doesn't matter at all in our guard. We have girls ranging from skinny as a twig to bigger girls. Majorettes hold their tryouts the same way. Unfortunately, looks do play a part in their group. This year was the first year we have ever had a black majorette. She was convinced that she wasn't going to make it because of her race. They also want people to be good looking in that group. If you are a bigger girl or not that good looking, you are going to have a much more difficult time getting in. The guard is much more open.

 

[xCourxCorex]

I'm a graduating senior from my varsity dance team.

Every year tryouts are held for girls entering 9-12th grade, usually late April/early May. Our coach (an English teacher at the HS) choreographs the tryout routine, which includes the styles we compete: jazz, pom, kick and some hiphop. They last 3 days: between teaching, reviewing and the actual "audition".

The biggest team we've ever had was 16 girls; the smallest 14, so it's pretty consistent. Any given year, 25-60 girls will tryout (there's about 2,200 kids in the school). This is the team for the entire season. They will do competitions and halftime and everything else. We work together as a team, and you're only as strong as your weakest member!

The judges are teammates of the coach (she dances in a company consisting of adults 18-26), local dance studio owners.. all have either coached or danced on our team, so they know the expectations. Coach has absolutely no say in who makes the team.
The judges mark by points, and the team will go until there is a significant drop in points (say 15 girls have 100-90 points, and the next highest is a 75, that's the cutoff).

Captains are either voted on by the previous year's team, or picked by the coach based on leadership, positive attitude, good attendence.

Regarding weight: i think that's really sad that girls are excluded because of their weight. We've had several heavier girls, and they are just as good as everyone else.

We start right after tryouts, compete in local overnight UDA competition (qualifier for UDA Nationals in WDW). Then in fall we do halftime of football, girls soccer & boys soccer.
We also put on HS Homecoming (sell tickets, tally king & queen, decorate, clean up), do several community appearances/parades, and "Jr dancer clinics" with elementary/middle school dancers.
Winter is girls and boys basketball, and several competitions. The season typically ends around March.

This is the first year since the 8th grade I get to help out with tryouts by leading warm up, helping the girls review, give out numbers, call in groups, etc. It's sad because dance team has been such an enormous part of my life since before I was even a freshman!

 

[undercovermom]

LOL missypie, my older dd is on the high school cheerleading team and younger dd is on the high school dance team.

cheerleading - there are four coaches and three squads - jv, varsity and competition. You have to be on either jv or varsity to try out for competition. This yearthere were about 20 girls on the competition team. The coaches run a three-day tryout - the first two days are to learn the routines. The coaches choose the girls and select captains. The comp team has professional choreography at an All Star gym. The coaches and captains do the cheers for jv and varsity. The girls get a letter their first year on varsity.

dance team - here on Long Island the teams call themselves "kicklines" and focus on high kick and pom, but our coach hates kick and pom, so our girls do jazz and hip hop. Last year there were 18 girls on the team, this year 23. The only officers are the captains, seniors elected by the rest of the team. as with cheerleading, tryouts take 3 days. The judges include faculty members and retired teachers. Every girl who makes the team is in at least one routine, but the captains choose which girls will dance in the "small" numbers. The captains choreograph all the dances.

we have had larger girls on both teams. I don't see a problem as long as the girl can perform the routines.

 

[nataliela]

My daughter didn't make officer her sophmore going into Junior year because she flashed a girl in the car behind us while on a trip her sophmore year. I thought it was ridiculous.

Can you clarify this....you thought that the fact that she flashed someone else was ridiculous, or that she didn't make captain?




At my school about 50 girls tried out, including members who were on the team the previous year.

The choreographer/coach made a dance and taught it to the girls. Graduating members were also at try outs helping teach the others the dance.

The girls went infront of the judges(coach, band director, moderator, other dance teachers in the area) in groups of 3's and performed the routine and basic turns and leaps.

Call backs were given right after the last group went it.

The list was posted later that night. Usually around 16-24 girls-depending on the quality.

Captains were chosen by performing their own routine and leadership skills.

The rest of the team voted on class officer.