TEAM is for:
Trained
Enriched
Abloom
Motivated
That’s right, Elevate Dance Center is home to a very special dance team. I’ve been asked a few times when we plan to start competing. I mean, why not? I competed myself as a young dancer. I won the trophies. I coached the teams- sometimes I coached the teams that won 1st place at nationals, and sometimes I coached the teams that couldn’t win even a steaming pile of cow dung. I have won the choreography awards. And I have also gotten the comments from judges like, “This one fell flat for me. Not my cup of tea.” (Whatever, Simon. Who says that to kids?!) And for several years now I’ve been at the judges’ table deciding the fate of the dancers on stage, sitting there for up to 50 hours in a single weekend in a city far far away.
So yeah, I’ve been there. I’ve done it all, and I don’t intend to do it again- especially not with OUR school, the one where I get to make every careful decision about our values and culture. Nope, not here. Not ever. Buh-bye competitive dance. The bottom line is this- if you want to spend big bucks and a ton of time to dance for trophies and crowns, you are really going to have to find another studio. Oof that’s harsh.
Or is it? Even though it IS different today, than when I was growing up, I promise not to go on and on about how much better competitive dance was back when I walked 10 miles barefoot uphill both ways to and from rehearsals in snowstorms. I DO have fond memories of my dance team days. It’s just that when I look back on my experience and think of the best parts, those good memories have absolutely nothing to do with the competition aspect. (My trophies hit the garbage bin by age 18.) In fact, most of everything competition related throughout my dance career has been more of a source of stress than anything else.
Now rather than going into detail on what I DON’T want to promote and all the reasons why I dislike competitive dancing today, let’s instead take my own advice and find the good. Let’s talk about what we DO want to promote at EDC and why our TEAM is different and so special. We feel the point of our TEAM is to give families who want more out of their dancer’s education an opportunity to create a deep sense of community while fostering and living the TEAM core values. It’s our mission to create an endearing and tight-knit community within our community that provides above-and-beyond experiences for our dancers to engage in dance in inspiring new ways without the dance competition environment.
As we said before, our TEAM is based on four core values. Every move we make with TEAM has to deal with at least one of these values, or we don’t do it pure and simple. Let’s break those down:
- Training: To be taught through practice and instruction. To undertake a course of exercise and/or diet in order to reach a high level of physical fitness, to cause to be sharp, discerning and developed.
- Enrichments: Improving or enhancing the quality and value of something. To enhance, make richer. Supplementing, upgrading.
- Abloom: Flowering or being in bloom. Blossoming. Thriving in beauty, health and vigor.
- Motivation: Stimulated in interest and enthusiasm for doing something. Inspired, encouraged, imaginative. A strong desire to succeed in some pursuit.
Here are the ways we put our core values into practice on TEAM:
- Training: audition workshop, minimum 2 classes in every session, participation in Fall and Spring show, participation in one weekend dance convention, priority selection for teaching assistants, some administrative training and tasks.
- Enrichments: exclusive opening number in Spring Show, featured performers in Finale at Spring Show, Colorado Dance Project charity show (recently canceled due to COVID-19), halftime performance at CU basketball and Denver Nuggets halftimes, volunteer opportunities such as serving at EDC Breakfast & Broncos fundraiser or producing our Halloween show for Sunny Acres Assisted Living, invitation to audition for local The Nutcracker production, trip to Nashville to Dance The World (July 2021).
- Abloom: TEAM members are urged to grow in technique and skill as a dancer. The teachers will know they have permission to expect more from TEAM dancers and push them harder than before. Blossoming dancers are blossoming humans, and they embody the EDC Student Pledge and they participate in character development exercises with their coaches and teammates.
- Motivated: TEAM dancers have a MINIMUM 85% attendance in their dance classes, 2.5 GPA or its equivalent. They are also school ambassadors by always demonstrating proper dance class etiquette and dress code, New Student Buddies, participating in culture building social events, etc.
The bottom line is this- we are not against dance teams. In fact, we love them. We just want to bring out the BEST in our dancers (and their parents) and we’re convinced we’ve found the number one way to do it through our non-competitive dance TEAM, upheld by its core values. Our commitment to EDC families is to take our TEAM members’ experience to the next level. We give the best we have to offer in terms of instruction and experiences, and we work alongside our dance families to raise the most trained, enriched, abloom, motivated version of our dancers they can be. We invite our members to join for the dancing, and stay for the growth. This is what being on a TEAM is all about!
*Interested in joining the 2020-2021 EDC Dance TEAM? Stay tuned- there will be an informational family meeting in early August!