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The University’s dance recognized student organizations (RSOs) are ready to dance their way through the spring semester, with their creative dance styles and fun practice sessions. The dance groups work together and encourage those passionate about dance to join them.

Mallory Rothweiler ’24, president of the Illuminate Dance Club, is excited for this semester’s performances. She is excited to start training her group to prepare for the upcoming Spring showcase in April.

“We're doing great and have a strong group of dancers," she said. "As we prepare for our showcase, we order costumes and organize people to help us work our event. We've also invited dance organizations from surrounding schools, such as Yale, UConn, Fairfield, Quinnipiac, and Sacred Heart. So far, Quinnipiac’s Irish Dance Club and Yale’s Danceworks have agreed to perform with us."

‘Building traction’

Rothweiler says their rehearsals had been a blast and that they were all working in unison to prepare for their performances. She’s been managing schedules in order to get everyone together.

The group of 12 members is very ambitious in preparing their performances and is eager to strengthen their relationships with other dance groups in and around the Connecticut area.

Sharing a similar excitement for the start of the Spring semester is Monsoon Dance Crew's president Teyah Greene ’24. The team hosted tryouts at the beginning of the semester. Greene said they met terrific dancers and that the participation was higher than it had been in the past Spring semesters.

"As a team, we aspire to attend all the involvement fairs this semester and to connect as much as possible with the student body,” said Greene. “Another strategy is constantly creating and posting fliers about events and tryouts and building traction on social media."

‘Move quicker and more efficiently’

The Monsoon Dance Crew members meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9 p.m. – 11:30 p.m. and Sundays from 7 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.

"Our overall goal for this semester is to grow as dancers,” said Greene. “We want to continue to establish a safe space for our dance team and a positive environment for people to come to. We also want to teach the campus about the art of hip-hop since we are the only hip-hop dance team on campus."

The current team of about 16 members is welcoming and does not have a cap on the number of people who can be part of their group. Interested members can still reach out and express their interest in joining the crew and follow their Instagram page for the most recent updates.

The �������Թ� KPop Dance Crew (CKDC) is also looking forward to the Spring semester.

"Apart from having things planned ahead of time, we have also redesigned our method of teaching choreography, and, so far, this has allowed us to move quicker and more efficiently," said Emily Soares ’24, CKDC treasurer.

‘It was wonderful to see this’

Soares enjoyed the group’s tryouts during the fall semester, and she’s looking forward to everything they have planned for the spring.

"Our first time running tryouts as the current e-board was in the fall,” she said. “We took inspiration from our different roots, such as athletic teams, musical theatre, and previous dance crews. We also followed the method used during our tryout, so teaching the choreographies, attempting to perfect them, splitting the auditionees into small groups, and then judging their performances made our work easier and more effective.

“Hosting tryouts was a learning experience,” she continued. “We had our e-board split up between people who taught choreography, who assisted those trying out, and those taking notes on everyone. This helped us learn how to run a larger group, as our RSO nearly doubled in size from last year's spring tryouts."

Soares is also looking forward to executing the crew's promotional plans. She says there were many members at the tryouts, and she could see the passion among those trying out.

"We aimed to heavily promote our crew at the Fall Involvement Fair, which was successful,” she said. “Simultaneously, our e-board members were on a constant promotional drive on our social media, such as Instagram and TikTok, which helped bring out more people for tryouts. We had several people come in with previous dance experience, and it was wonderful to see this!”

‘Up our game’

The dance crew wrapped up their tryouts for the Spring in the first week of February, and their next goal is to finish perfecting their choreography for their first event of this semester, which is the Valentine's Day Club Night, happening on Saturday, February 10, at 9 p.m. in the German Club.

"After tryouts and the club event, we will integrate our new members into the group and prepare for co-sponsorship events,” said Soares. “We are also working to expand our social media presence on TikTok and Instagram through short videos to show our capabilities as a group and to give sneak peeks at what's to be expected at our upcoming performances.”

Soares shared her experience setting schedules based on everyone's availabilities and concluded that practicing three times a week is ideal for all. Talking further about the goals for this semester, she mentioned that their ultimate objective is to continue to get the crew's name out there.

“Schedules are always an issue, but we let our dancers meet at their times as a group, and they help fill each other in on any missed information or practice sessions,” she said. “This helps everyone stay on track and dance cohesively.”

The crew is currently at 15 members and is open to adding more, up to their limit at 25. KPop enthusiasts are encouraged to reach out to CKDC to express their interest.

“KPop is a growing genre, and we want to show those who may not know much about it that it is fun and versatile,” explains Soares. “A personal goal for us is to improve upon our performance and stage presence. We take inspiration from other RSO dance clubs on campus here and want to continually up our game.”

Anchal Bhatia ’24 MBA is a candidate in the University’s MBA program.