I'm from Alberta, Canada, and over here, dance teams are NOT big at all... in fact, I'd hardly even heard of them before coming to this site! I'm asking on behalf of my sister though, who just found out that the university that she's going to next year has a pretty good dance team, and she thought maybe it would be cool to try out for it, for a fun way to keep herself dancing through university... she's danced all her life, and is pretty proficient in all types of dance- her favourites are tap, hip hop, and jazz. But we were both just kind of wondering what exactly you do in dance team? Is it mostly just like jazz and hip hop routines, or are there some "cheerleadery" elements in there (like tumbling and stuff??). She's decently flexible for a dancer, but she's not overally freaky flexible, and she's definitely not very acrobatic when it comes to flips and aerials and stuff... do you do those types of things in dance team??

Sorry for sounding TOTALLY ignorant lol... my sister just sort of wanted an idea about what the whole dance team thing is about before she gets too serious about trying out, so I thought I'd ask you guys.

*Heather*

In most of the dance teams, or poms there isn't any tumbling or stunts at all, I find schools are trying to separate dancing from Cheering ... which rules! But I have found schools that do both in one.
And...
Usually if you are on a dance team you have more than one routine, so you'll have a jazz routine, and hiphop, a highkick, and when she tryouts they put all that into one routine so if she's pretty good at a couple of them, she'll do good!

Hope she makes the team!

Thanks so much for your help!

*Heather*

I don't think any dance team does tumbling so she won't have to worry about that (I would die)! I'm sure your sister will do great!

some "cheerleadery" elements incorporated into a dance team that would perform at football or basket ball, or whatever, would be the arms-but luckly no tumbling. Not all but many college dance teams perform jazz, or hip hop routines but when doing sidelines they may typically have pom pons so there is a need for basic pom or cheer arms. Have you ever seen the team perform or is there a website because that can clue you in to what she'll need to know(teachnique requirements, etc.) let me know if you have any questions.:)

when you say university you're speaking of college right, not high school? Canada's not too far from the US but in other countries they sometimes refer to the university as high school- i just don't wanna sound dumb if you're talking about something else-lol

At the high-school that i attended, we had a jazz/hip-hop style dance team. The most "cheerleadery" things we did were toe-touches, but that also kinda fits into the jazz thing. Tell your sister to research the school's dance team to see what styles are involved...there are many variations! Good luck!
Rouxz

Dance teams are strictly dance. No tumbling is required at all.

Usually school dance teams compete with a mixture of routines, ranging from hiphip to jazz to pom. Pom is commonly thought to be 'cheer', but it's really just dance with sharp, strong arm movements rather than stylistic jazz movements. The only cheerlead-ey thing we do are toe-touches.

As for tecnique...Turns are very important, as most teams require a solid tripple (some require quads) and solid right-legged fouettes and toures. Flexibility is also pretty major because of jumps and leaps, so she should have both of her splits flat. I've found that most teams don't really care about splits in second.

Good luck to your sister!

A lot of schools in our area have two types of dance teams. One is really a drill team - an extension of a pom team, where they also compete in dance (often hip-hop, jazz, kick, etc.). They don't do any tap or ballet. Some compete in lyrical - but that's rare. They perform at the football and basketball games.

The second type is a true dance team or club - in our case called "Orchesis". They stress performances - and you see all types of dance - ballet, pointe, tap, lyrical, jazz and hip-hop, among others. I know some Orchesis teams also compete - generally in dance competitions versus the drill/dance team competitions.