Me and My friend have always wanted to start a dance team which seems pointless living in New Hampshire but It is our goal for this year. Last year we started a club and that went fine(it would have been a team but not enough people joined). But this year our only fear is that we are going to be freshmans in Highschool so we are totally freaking out because we are afraid the seniors and juniors will get mad about the whole thing and then when we try and make it they wont join because they wouldnt want us correcting them(it has happened before in our school. So yeah we already have someone willing to coach and she has loads of dance experience and everything and we arent afraid to go to the principle but we are afraid of all the upper classmen. So I have some questions.

1.) Do you have any advice on any of this?
2.) Do you have any ideas on how to get the upper classmen to go along with it?
and now some general questions
1.) How many people are on a normal dance team?
2.) What are some good fundraising ideas?
3.) How much money does a team need to start out with(copeting and non-competing)?
4.) How should we advertise?
5.) Does anyone have a scoring sheet for auditions(tryouts) whatever you want to call them?
6.) Do you have any ideas on what we could say to the principle, should we bring the coach with us?
7.) Any ideas on where we could by costumes or uniforms?
8.) DO you no of any competitions in the New England Area?


OK well thanks in advance for all you help and we wish all of your teams luck at camp and everything next year .

1.) Do you have any advice on any of this?
Try the grapevine tell a friend who has upperclassmen friends that like to join
2.) Do you have any ideas on how to get the upper classmen to go along with it?
^^^ post signs around the school
1.) How many people are on a normal dance team?
16-24
2.) What are some good fundraising ideas?
Carwash! Bake Sale!
3.) How much money does a team need to start out with(copeting and non-competing)?
I'm not sure... with outfits and shoes my poms cost almost a thousand dollars
4.) How should we advertise?
Signs around the school and town
5.) Does anyone have a scoring sheet for auditions(tryouts) whatever you want to call them?
Uhm no but... Have a routine... and a technique (periay, and kicks)
6.) Do you have any ideas on what we could say to the principle, should we bring the coach with us?
Just tell them what u told us
7.) Any ideas on where we could by costumes or uniforms?
Go for a theme song if it's jungle get camo if it's hiphop go for that
8.) DO you no of any competitions in the New England Area?
no but i'm sure if you looked it up on the net you'd find some

1.) Do you have any advice on any of this?
i would say definitely try to make a team because you will enjoy it so much and i think that the problems that you are anticipating with the upperclassmen are probably not going to happen. if girls really want to be on the team, they wont care. plus, i doubt you and your friend would be the ones making all the corrections. generally the coaches make most of the corrections. girls on the team do correct each other, but the upperclassmen will probably correct you as much as you correct them by the end of the season, because everyone messes up at some point. i wouldnt worry about it.
2.) Do you have any ideas on how to get the upper classmen to go along with it?
see above, and i see no reason why they wouldn't if they really love dancing. the most important thing on a team isnt how amazing the dancers' techniques are (although that helps) as much as how passionate they are about it. i would start to try to find girls who already love dance, maybe find girls from local studios, or girls that used to studio dance
and now some general questions
1.) How many people are on a normal dance team?
i have seen between 5 and 40 but most teams are somewhere between 15 and 25. but only take as many girls as deserve to be on it, because i have seen an AMAZING team with only 8 girls, and it looks better to be a smaller, better team than bigger and sloppier
2.) What are some good fundraising ideas?
carwashes are great but our team had a lot of success with individual sales such as cookie dough, candy, chocalate bars, christmas items, etc. also, having a recital with more interesting pieces (like hip-hop or jazz) for about 5 dollars makes a lot of money.
3.) How much money does a team need to start out with(competing and non-competing)? it depends on each team. so far, our team has spent about 350 per girl on uniforms, shoes, competition entrance fees, etc. camp will cost another 300 or so. and lodging, etc. for comps. will cost hundreds, depending on how well we do this year
4.) How should we advertise?
lots of signs and posters, at studios, over your school announcements, and have open gyms the few weeks beforehand for interested girls to kind of see what it would be like and practice skills etc.
5.) Does anyone have a scoring sheet for auditions(tryouts) whatever you want to call them?
this is the link to my old junior high team tryout score sheet students.uwsp.edu . . .
obviously for a high school tryout you would make it more difficult, make the harder skills non-optional, and add more challenging skills like triples and quads, switch to second leaps, a hard kick set (maybe fan kicks and illusions?) etc. oh and the quick learn on the sheet is where about 15 minutes before the actual audition girls trying out are tought a few simple eight counts they haven't learned before and have 10 minutes or so to practice before the tryout. it is to see how fast you learn, but not really necessary for a tryout.
6.) Do you have any ideas on what we could say to the principle, should we bring the coach with us?
yes, bring the coach with you, and just emphasize how beneficial the team would be to the school. make sure that you have all of the finances worked out ahead of time (paying a coach, buses to comps., etc) and a place to practice. if the gyms are busy, you may have to find another place. our team practices in the cafeteria.
7.) Any ideas on where we could by costumes or uniforms?
just try to get different costume and uniform catalogues...it really depends on what you are looking for. it depends if you'll be performing jazz, pom, high kick, hip-hop or novelty, for what types of uniforms to get. price is important, and also, if this team will perform at football and basketball games it will probably need to be in your school colors.
there are many more sites than this, but here is one uniform site www.varsity.com . . .
8.) DO you no of any competitions in the New England Area?
www.varsity.com . . .
this shows some UDA competitions from last year (look under northeast)....upainc.net . . . that is the site that shows UPA regional directors, and you could get ahold of one in your area who may be able to help you. also, in wisconsin there is the WACPC (wisconsin association of cheer and pom coaches) that holds many competitions including regionals and state and you may have a similar association in new hampshire or new england. www.ayosinoffcheerdancecamps.com . . . also, here is the site of a 15th annual cheer and dance competition

hope this helps! good luck with everything!

-Emily

Thanks for all you great help that score sheet was very helpful green fouettes and thanks for all the encourage meant from both of you we are going to go talk to the principal athletic directoy and everyone else in a few days so wish us luck!!! any other info would be great to.

1. Do it anyway. Just because you are founders of the dance team doesn't mean you guys will even make it, let alone be captains or managers or anything, and you have to agree to being simply a member with the pride that you survived try-outs . You have to be very humble about the entire situation in order to make it happen.

2. To spread the word without having to approach upperclassmen one-on-one, put up posters. That way, the upperclassman won't realize that you guys are 'in charge' and wont' be threatened by it. Word will spread from dancer-to-dancer.

1. I've seen anywhere from nine to thirty.

2. Carwashes, bake sales.

3. This is a tough question, because there's really no set amount. Each member should be charged for her own uniform, competition dance shoes, poms, and tights. The team will need a space to practice (you may or may not have to pay for that), and enough money to pay the coach monthly. At my school, each dancer pays a $200 fee at the beginning of the season to cover all competition fees, not including Nationals.

4. Posters, fliers, candy with a tag saying something like, 'Come try out for our dance team!' You could even go to the local studios and put up small signs that say you're high school's name in large letters, so that the dancers from your school check it out.

5. I don't have a link or anything, but remember to have sections. One would be jumps (toe touches, axles, rhomverses), another would be turns (right and left pirrouettes, toures, and fouettes) judged on number of turns (doubles, tripples, etc) and technique. Another section would be flexibility (splits, kicks and extensions). The next section would be leaps (right and left, seconds, and switches) judged on technique, heighth and ability for difficulty. The next section should be the try-out routine, judged on facials, confidence, strength and sharpness, ability for diffuculty, and memory.

6. Yes, bring the coach. Just talk about why you would like to start a dance team, how you could raise money, the space you would need for practices and tryouts, how tryouts would be run, how you would advertise, what the squad would do (perform at football and basketball half-times, go to competitions, perform at pep rallies, etc).

7. This link lists several reliable companies you could order from: www.danceusa.com . . .

8. www.varsity.com . . .