Personal Narrative: The Mcintosh Dance Team

At South Walton High School homecoming is an extremely important tradition. Not to mention, South Walton includes an unbelievably small number of students compared to majority of the high schools throughout the America. As I proceed through my senior year, I came to a realization that it would be my last opportunity to participate in this year’s series of homecoming events. With homecoming beginning the week of September 26, 2016 I was overjoyed to express the amount of spirit I had for my school. As each day expressed a different theme I decided to dress up for many of the occasions. On “twin day” as Meredith Grey from the cast of Grey’s Anatomy. Twin day allows students to find a partner or group of friends that could arrange a similar outfit

Abby Payne at Lake Travis High School claims her team is all about the show. They do football, contest, and spring show but spring show is the team’s favorite. One thing that seemed unique about her team is that they devote an entire group or the “Elite team” to preparing the dancers who want to dance collegiately. This is a great idea when you are in an area like Lake Travis because those dancers work hard in both academics and dance so they are more likely to attend prestigious schools that have excellent dance teams. It is a wonderful that Abby is taking steps to set them up for success in their future. Another thing that is interesting to me is that Abby encourages them to be in other organizations and to involve themselves in other things besides dance team so they can build their resumes. From my experience a lot of directors prefer their dancers keep the dance team as the number one priority and to not make too many other time commitments that take away from their devotion to the team. It’s very generous of Abby to allow the kids to take these opportunities to further prepare them for their future. The thing

Our coaches had told us since the beginning that the months and months we would spend preparing for one particular day would all be worth it in the end. Taking place at New Castle Fieldhouse in early March 2015, I competed in the IHSDTA Dance team competition with my fellow teammates and members of the NHS dance team. We walked into the vast, expansive Fieldhouse knowing that it was the largest High School Fieldhouse in the Nation. The anticipation in the air was electric and full of excited chatter of girls who had been preparing for months for this one day… actually for these two minutes.

The year is 1923. There is this very small, quiet, and amazing town in Ohio called Otway. In this town there is a small white two story house with a beautiful garden as a backyard. In this house lives a 12 year old brunette haired girl named Myronetta June.

This weekend I will be at school trying out for next year’s Foley Falconette Dance Team. This consists of girls in grades seventh through twelfth,you do not have to have any experience of dance. It will last seven hours, it starts at nine in the morning and will end at four in the afternoon. We will work on a lot of dance moves, we will stretch, learn our tryout routine and work on our splits, kicks, turns, jumps and a lot more dance moves. Once we do all of the stretches and learn everything, we will move on to the actual tryout part. Our coach will put us into groups of three to five and we will perform everything that we learned that day. While our coach “grades” us on our moves and our flexibility that we have, our coach will tell us where she thinks we should be placed for next year’s team, the Varsity team, the Junior Varsity, or the C-Squad, Varsity is for the advanced dancers who can do anything without a problem, junior varsity is made up of dancers who have experience, but they are not at the varsity level yet, and the c-squad is for new dancers or for people who need help with their moves and everything else.

This weekend I, personally did not have much planned. The only activity I attended was a seven-hour dance tryout for the Foley Falconettes Dance Team. At the dance tryout, all the people were made to do learn a dance, jumps and leaps, the splits, and stretch plenty therefore people wouldn’t hurt themselves. I needed to attend this to figure out what team I will be attending this for the winter. After my seven-hour dance tryouts, my family held a campfire. I could sit under the stars and listen to the campfire crackle.

I was relieved to see that my group members seemed nice, since I was already the most terrified I had ever been in my whole life. My heart was pounding so fast and I could hardly stay standing. This is what you’ve been waiting for. You need to do this. This day, this moment, would change my whole high school experience. It was the day of the coed choreo dance team audition. A group of three people at a time would go in for their single chance to be accepted into the best team in the world.

My coach finally tells my eighth grade team, “Also, there will be four outside judges judging your try out.” My heart froze. I felt lightheaded, although I had been sitting. My entire team’s eyes grew large; we all looked at each other with suspicion in our eyes. My hand flew in the air. “Who else is going to judge us?” I asked apprehensively. My coach didn’t answer my question at all. I felt the fear settle in my stomach more and more each day. It was the last day of tryout clinics, and I was a wreck. The music we danced to was blaring, but all I heard was just a blurred roar of music. No matter how many times I went over the freshly learned dance; I couldn’t remember it to save my life! The last day of clinic was over in the blink of an eye. My try out was tomorrow. My friend, Sarah, who had been trying out also comforted me. I knew she was just as nervous as I was by the

Leading a team of teenage girls is most definitely not effortless, but it is something that I’ve done with pride for the past three years. When I entered high school, I was beyond eager to join the dance team. Unfortunately, it was not even the slightest of what I had expected it to be. We rarely performed and when we did, the feeling that I obtained exceeded embarrassment. I have danced since I was three years old, but it was so terribly draining, and not even in a physical way, that I considered quitting the team. At the end of the season my freshman year, though, the coach informed us that she was quitting and offered me the captain position for the following year. So with that, I decided to stay on the team. I was determined to make my

When I was 10 I began going to a church where they have a dance ministry and a band ministry I thought it was really cool and fun. I seen the girls danced in the alter with a tambourine I was a little girl I wanted to dance too with them so I told my mother I want to be in the dance ministry and my mother talked to the pastor's wife and she said I was able to start going to the practices with the girls on Friday's night . I learned all the steps and moves in 3 months and I began dancing in the alters I was super exited I loved it. I moved to Texas in September 2011 and we found a church over there they did not have a dance ministry there and they planned to have one, my mother talked to them about me being able to teach the girls how to dance

It was it. Today was the day that all of our hard work and preparation would matter. Weeks of conditioning and giving up our social lives to train were finally put to work. It was it. It was the NLL championship track meet.

As a result of the coaches, the dynamics between the dancers throughout this last season were superior over the other seasons I was on the team. For instance, during the first three seasons I danced on the team, before competitions started, at least two girls quit each season, and some even quit multiple seasons because they remained unsatisfied with the same issues from past seasons. However, this season, not a single girl quit because of team issues, which shows this season's superiority. Another example of improving team dynamics is the way we all grew closer throughout this season. In fact, one dancer even said, "Because of this team I have found my real friends." For example, at the beginning of my last season, some girls disliked

Joining my High School dance team was one of the best decisions I ever made, until my junior year. The year started out great, we had a very talented team of 24 dancers and three amazing coaches. Our three routines showed everyone's strengths and were choreographed to perfection. However, as the season went on my team and I struggled to connect with one another. We got along but we saw each other as singular people not as one team. Our coaches also had many disagreements. It was always two against one with every decision that had to be made, and it really affected the team. We had our fair share of team talks to try and resolve our issues, but new issues just kept showing up. Towards the end of the season some people no longer enjoyed being on the team. The talk of practice soon

Their pointed feet, perfected turns, and enthralling appearances left me in awe as the Hills West danceline performed a breathtaking routine at our annual homecoming. As I watched from stands, I knew I had to add a new chapter to my long life as a dancer. However, after being a member for a year, everything changed once a new coach was employed who desired to downsize the team. She met with us individually, hosted new tryouts, and ultimately decided that I would be one of the girls removed from the team. I was shattered, deflated, but mainly lost. Cutting me from my own team was like robbing me of my identity. If I was not a dancer, then what was I? It me took weeks to optimistically view life after danceline. Although coach asked me to rejoin

The music was blaring. Beach balls were flying everywhere. The smell of pizza, pop, and the sound of balloons bouncing to the ceiling fills the air. It was the first Middle School Dance. I had been helping set up the whole thing. Some children looked like they were dancing too hard, and were going to have a broken back in the morning. Then there were the kids who just hung back in the corner. Why do they even come? Then, I heard the stereo DJ start to move the records around. After a few songs, a Rihanna song came on. By that time the DJ and flashing lights were only about 4 feet away from me. The DJ looked at all of the teachers including me, and said, “It’s Karaoke Time!” A kid looked at me and said, “Hey,