The Lancer Dancers competed at the Universal Dance Association (UDA) Nationals competition in January. Since their dances only get a few chances to perform and perfect, practices were vital. The team’s success and hard work all started with Coaches Jackie Clawson and Hailey Dixon’s dedication towards their team.
The routines, choreography and music started being decided last school year. The girls contributed their opinions and ideas into this process so they could connect to the music when they danced to it. The theme ended up being ‘Mean Girls’ and an obsession with songs they all knew and loved. The dance was a fun-mix choreographed by Londyn Ashley and Caliea Koehler.
“For hiphop it was a collaborative thing, so LD actually at the end of the school year came up with a list of different songs and I brought those to the choreographers and based off of themes that LD liked we chose the song,” Coach Jackie Clawson said.
Their jazz routine takes a different approach by creating an emotional feel for the judges. Their choreographer Hailey Willis sent three songs to the coaches and without knowing the other one’s opinion, they chose the same song.
“Our choreographer always picks a very emotional piece that means something to her and then we always connect with it too. So this piece was really dedicated to our 10 seniors and how their chapter here was ending so that was the jazz,” Coach Hailey Dixon said.
Practice time was always very productive with the coaches spending time outside of practice figuring out what needed to be done in practice. The team regularly had practice Monday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday and throughout holiday breaks.
“I constantly had a to-do list so it could have been cleaning or changing areas based on judges feedback, working on cardio elements of trying to get through the dance and spacing,” Clawson said.
During the long practices, the most important thing was staying productive while also keeping up the energy, team morale and love in the room. The coaches understood how to motivate their team and listen to what they needed, so they utilized their dancers’ feedback.
“At the beginning of the school year, I created a google form for all the girls about what they liked and did not like about practice,” Clawson said. “I tried to incorporate their needs into practices. For example, one thing they liked was not only the captain speaking. They wanted other people to help with cleans.”
A big point of focus was incorporating more full out performances into practice. This helped build stamina and made the dances appear stronger during the competition.
“We always do a warmup and then we take our dances section by section, so we’d walk through jazz sections and hip-hop sections,” Dixon said. “We always did full outs, we really pushed doing multiple fullouts this year, so they had better stamina and that really helped at nationals.”
The coaches constantly reminded their team to do their best and remember their why. At the beginning of the season, the team made a “why” board on the reason they dance.
“We remind our dancers to always go back to doing it for your teammates and doing it for the people around you if you are not dancing for yourself at the moment,” Dixon said. “If you have moments where you’re down and have moments where you cannot find self motivation, to do it for a teammate, that was a big thing that we did this year.”
The coaches also realized when their team needed a break and pushing harder would not be productive. Both coaches learned more about reading their team and giving them what they needed.
“It was super important to be able to read my team so if it got to the point where a full out would not be productive, I would have them do the dance in sections instead of doing the whole dance full out,” Clawson said. “I learned more about listening this year and being able to read a room with what their needs are but also balancing out with what I needed them to accomplish as a coach.”
All of their hard work paid off heading to Florida feeling confident and excited. Through the hard practices, the team grew stronger and had so much fun at UDA.
“The coaches remind them that you get to dance and that is what you love to do so just go out and have fun and that is definitely our emphasis when we get to Florida is you’ve done all the hard work you can so now it’s time to do what you love and have fun with your team,” Dixon said.
After the competition, the coaches were able to reflect on all the things they had accomplished throughout the season. Also, the team grew closer and created a lifetime bond.
“Just knowing that the team really cared a lot at the end of the day they loved to dance and they were a strong unit together,” Clawson said. “It really showed with their time on the stage and off the stage that they were really connected.”
