The dancers struck a pose with one arm over their head and a hand on their hips as the music cut off from the stereos. Sweat dripped from their brows as they panted after going over the choreography for the fifth time in a row. But the dancing did not stop as they drowned their faces in cold water from their bottles and cheered each other on throughout practice that evening.
“This is my first year in it [ dance club], and one of my favorite memories so far is that, every practice they treat us like family and from the pep rally we had a good experience,” freshman Aliyah Estevez said. “They really helped me because I had a panic attack… I got anxiety because I got scared I would do something wrong.”
Newcomers each have a different reason for joining the club, making their own experiences and memories during their time as a member.
“I wasn’t gonna do it at first but my sister told me to do it so I was like, ‘okay, might as well…’ and it’s the best thing I could’ve done,” sophomore Franchesca Pichardo said. “My greatest experience has been meeting people who have the same passion as me and getting to share experiences with students and bond with them ‘cause this is a big school, and 3000 students, you can’t really make close bonds with people like that. So when you’re in this club, you get to experience new relationships, and you get to bond with them ‘cause of all the rigorous dances that we do, so it’s really great.”
Some dancers find themselves attached to the group, finding it difficult to say goodbye at times when leaving.
“I’ve been dancing since I was two and half,” freshman Maicol “Zion” Ayala said. “When I was younger, we’d always listen to like Michael Jackson and so you know how Michael Jackson is a big icon, so that’s really what I started dancing to, and after that I just took off and bloomed and kept growing and stuff. But, stuff had came up inside, you know, the background of my life, and now I’m having to be moved to Virginia and have to experience something new. There’s gonna be a lot of new people, new dances, and hopefully there I can find people that are as good as the people here and will support me in what I do, how I look at things… and that I can help them and they can help me so we can help each other like people did here.”
