With the salute of a pom confirming that the team is ready, the music begins.
Texas Dance Educators Association (TDEA), hosted a Pilot UIL Field Assessment for drill teams to perform football routines and get feedback. The Sweethearts traveled 70 miles to Challenger Columbia Stadium on Tuesday and performed a pom routine to ‘Toxic’ by Britney Spears, receiving all ones from the judges.
“We were honored to be invited to something so important,” senior Lily Cross said. “The way we performed and impacted the judges has a way of persuading the state to put drill teams into the UIL category, which will allow for drill teams to be more seen and impactful on communities.”
“The most challenging part of preparing for UIL was working around football performances,” senior Andrea Harvey said. “We had to learn new forms and, for some dancers, new parts. As a team, we had to work together to make time to practice, go over forms, and make changes, even through football season. We still managed to get it done by uplifting and encouraging each other.”
Feedback received from participating in this assessment will give insight into what dancers need to work on.
“We got a lot of feedback on working on our dynamics,” junior Annabell Smith-Grimm said. “Especially with our levels and arms. They all said it would help with musicality and fulfilling the music. That’ll come in handy during competition season as a key part of our scores is musicality and technique.”
This performance was the first time dancing a football routine not at a football game.
“The hardest part was getting into the mindset of it being like a competition,” Cross said. “We have never done a football routine anywhere else but at a football game, so we had to drill the routine and work on the tiny imperfections to try and reach for that perfect 300 score. We overcame this by maintaining a positive attitude when asked to and keep dancing repeatedly.”
Dancers are constantly receiving critiques from directors and teammates, but this opportunity with judges critiquing them helps the team grow.
“I believe this experience will help us grow,” sophomore Katie Cruz said. “Both individually and as a team, by providing us with an early understanding of the areas we need to improve for the future. Additionally, it will cultivate a sense of unity and collaboration as we work towards common goals.”
With this event, the possibility of dance being added as a UIL category becomes a reality.
“I felt honored to be a part of such a change in history,” Smith-Grimm said. “This experience and our contribution are so memorable knowing we are shaping the future of so many high school dancers. Especially now that dance is getting so much recognition for our hard work I think it could be the start of a stronger dance community.”
