This past week, I spent Tuesday through Friday at Illinois State University for a Universal Dance Association Elite Camp with my poms team. Each year, we take our varsity and junior varsity squads downstate to spend four days training intensely to qualify for the National Dance Team Championship in Orlando. I am exhausted, but it was by far the best week of camp I've ever had!
The first night, we competed our Home Routine against other schools. This was a routine we had already learned and polished, and it turned out quite well.
{Opening Pose!}
{Post Home Routine Performance: Captains + Coach}
The JV team also performed a Home Routine, and we were lucky enough to have most of our alumni who were seniors last year come support us!
{Post Home Routine Performance: Varsity (Pink), JV (Purple), and our incredible alumni!}
Both JV and Varsity were evaluated for our routines and received blue ribbons!
{Varsity with our blue ribbon! Naturally, I'm rocking a bow.}
On the second day, each dancer attending camp split up to learn different routines to be evaluated individually on the last day. I learned a Level IV mix routine combining jazz, pom, and hip-hop sections and a Level V jazz routine. Day Two is definitely the hardest physically and mentally, because you spend hours learning and internalizing choreography and doing it full out tons of times! It's important to know the routines very well in order to get blue ribbons to help your team qualify for nationals!
Day Three involved review of both routines, as well as technique classes, team routine evaluations (we got a blue ribbon there too!), and All-American evaluations. Five girls from our squad–me, the other two captains, and two other seniors–came early on Day Two and Day Three to learn an extra routine (plus our own section of choreography showcasing our best tricks) to be evaluated on for All-American recognition. All five of us were selected as All-Americans!
{One of my favorite pictures ever!}
Day Three also included a crazy themed afternoon to let off some steam and just have fun. The theme this year was "Summer Flashback," so naturally, we dressed up as 80's dancers!
{My best friend/fellow captain and I in our flashback outfits}
Day Four was evaluations for our individual routines. Our girls picked up almost all blue ribbons, qualifying us for Nationals! I was also selected by the staff to receive an invitation to apply to be on UDA Staff next year, a huge honor. Unfortunately for me, I'll have to wait until next year because I won't be 18 by the deadline. But still, being invited had been a dream of mine, and it came true!
Because we dance up to twelve hours each day at camp, it's super important for us to stay hydrated. It's a pain to wait in line at the water jugs and it's also super inconvenient when your water bottle runs out, so I painted monogrammed water jugs in our school colors for me and for one of the JV captains who I'm super close with.
It was quite the project, but they turned out great! I had never painted a cooler or a jug before, so Pinterest and The Cooler Connection Facebook Group were extremely helpful. We love them!! And we only had to fill them once each morning at breakfast!
I honestly couldn't have asked for a better, more fulfilling camp experience for my senior year. I absolutely love camp, and I am so blessed to have gotten everything I've wished for at camp this past week. I'm heartbroken that I can't apply for staff for next year, but I'll definitely be putting in an application once I turn 18!
XO
