History was made in Orlando, Florida, when Keene State College’s dance team made it to finals without a coach. The girls out-danced nine other teams at the Universal Dance Association Nationals to compete in the final competition.
Nineteen of Keene’s finest dancers competed at UDA Nationals January 16 and 17. The team competed in the open division, which consisted of 18 colleges from around the nation. After competing in semi-finals, KSC’s dance team was selected to move on to the final competition for the first time in KSC history.
Dance captain Courtney Capone said, “It’s an amazing feeling.” Capone said she struggled emotionally to find the words to describe her experience at nationals. As a senior at KSC, Capone was emotional about her last dance at a national competition.
“Everyone was so positive, there’s no better feeling,” Capone said.
Photo by Jake Coughlin / Administrative Executive Editor
Capone said the team was just shy of making finals last year so they set a resolution to make it farther in the 2016 competition.
“We kept telling ourselves that it was just us [dancers] who got us to nationals. We don’t have a coach, so it became kind of like a team motto,” she said.
The self-taught dancers worked hard during the first semester of the year. They practiced long hours of the night in order to adjust to everyone’s different class schedules.
Team manager Victoria Smolenski said funding the trip was a hardship the girls had to overcome.
“The money provided by the school covers less than half of the cost of our trip,” Smolenski said. Smolenski said she felt the pressure when it came to fundraising.
“As the manager, I have to come up with ways to fundraise and get everything approved by the school, it was a lot of pressure to come through for the team,” Smolenski said.
The team held car washes, sold calendars and made pies by hand to sell during the Thanksgiving season. They also created a GoFundMe account to open up the fundraising to friends and family.
Smolenski said the hardest part of the trip for her was the paperwork.
“Everything has to be approved by the school. Before we can even buy plane tickets, we have to send in all of our paperwork and wait for approval,” Smolenski said.
According to Smolenski, any raffles the team held had to be approved by the city of Keene.
Photo by Jake Coughlin / Administrative Executive Editor
Members of the dance team said that they hoped their success at the national competition would bring more awareness to the team.
“We are more than just a club,” Capone said. She said she doesn’t think the dance team gets enough recognition from the school.
“We work so hard and receive so little. I really hope our success makes everyone more aware of how much work we put in,” Capone said.
First-year student and dancer Lauren Carney said not having a coach was one of the most important things to her during the competition.
“It’s cool to go to the competition and know that you’ve beat teams that have coaches, and we did this on our own. To hear our name called out was a whirlwind of emotions,” Carney said.
She said not having a coach has only brought the girls closer.
“I don’t consider us just a team, we’re more like sisters,” Carney said.
KSC sophomore Jenna Caggiano said making it to finals was more than amazing.
Photo by Jake Coughlin / Administrative Executive Editor
“I wasn’t on the team last year so I don’t have another national experience to compare this year’s too, but I can’t imagine a better feeling in the world,” Caggiano said.
She said many people at the competition were surprised to see KSC compete without a coach.
“We make our own decisions, and that’s one of the most important parts of being a team,” Caggiano said.
Capone said being a captain is hard at times, but said she is grateful for the positive vibes on the team.
“Being a part of this team was life changing. It really taught me what hard work and friendship is really all about,” Capone said.
Mackenzie can be contacted at mclarke@kscequinox.com