3 Things I'm Grateful For Because of Dance Even Though Fall Sports Were Canceled

Art Direction and Photograph by: Catie Menke. Model: Danielle Carruth.

Copy by: Jeni Fjelstad
Model: Danielle Carruth
Creative Direction: Catie Menke

I arrived for dance camp that 90 degree mid-August day expecting to learn a couple dances, drill some pirouettes, and leap across the floor. After a full hour of relaxing yoga stretches, my dance coach announced our college conference had chosen to cancel all sports through the end of the year.

No sunrise game day practice. No glittery dresses and cheering. No audience and no performance.

But my teammates and I wiped the tears away as we pushed into an hour of turn drills. Even the most dreaded scenarios are no match for the resilience of a dancer.

Being a college dancer has shown me how to be extra thankful during difficult times. My team has taught me how dear resilience, team spirit, and technique can be to mental wellness.

Although the team was bummed about our season, we slayed three more full days of camp activity, each ending in nightly dinner and bonding. The final night, our coach passed out sticky notes for us all to write a word or phrase to our senior captain.

Words like inspiring, leader, and caring popped from the orange notes. She shows dancer’s resilience like no other, pulling up to practice each day with positivity and heart despite a deeply valued part of senior year being ripped away.

The notes (and cupcakes) represented our supportive team spirit, too.

Having 14 girls to back me up when I’m feeling down brings a rush of gratitude. My team is a treasure, and in a year when almost nothing is certain, I can be certain of them.

Coworkers, families and friend groups build lifelong teams who can be prepared with extra compliments and tons of energy. Leaving a sticky note for a ‘teammate’ or spending extra quality time together boosts wellness off the field too.

My team builds more spirit with closer relationships each year. As a full team, we visited the apple orchard to take trendy pictures and munch on crisp apples. We painted a plywood board with “Squad” in blue and gold for the homecoming celebration. We decompressed after midterms with a Halloween movie and game night.

Each time, we get to know each other better and become more grateful for the powerful women we’ve become alongside each other.

Our weekly team workouts help build our resilience. We gather at set times each Thursday to forget daily worries and just build our strength and toning. I feel my stresses disappear and sense the whole team getting stronger each workout.

I’m comforted that we can form our resilience as one community. Resilience grows as we put care and time into wellness and building a supportive team.

I’ve learned to lean on that dance team support system when disaster hits. 2020 gave me habits of isolation that weigh hard on my ability to reach out. I appreciate that it goes both ways: I’m always checking in on my team, and they’re doing the same for me.

Each year we get a built-in buddy on the team for an extra dose of encouragement. Our “spirit sister” is a partner during practice, shares daily cares and experiences, and brings a closer level of companionship to the team.

While not everyone has a spirit sister, I guarantee there’s a parent, friend, or neighbor who anyone can reach out to when bad times hit. Taking care to reach out is the most important step to realizing that built-in gift of camaraderie.

No one understands the magic of positive energy more than a cheery team of dancers. That’s why our team has a hype girl to shout out “bring the energy” or “you’ve got this” throughout practice. I suppose that positivity is the secret to both our team spirit and our resilience.

In a season without performances, I’m thankful our team still has goals we work towards to give us a feeling of purpose. We record performances to showcase our dances online. When we aren’t learning new routines, we work on our dance technique. Turns, leaps, jumps and hip-hop tricks keep us focused and energized.

At the end of each practice, the hype girl picks a dancer who stood out throughout the night as giving it their all while dancing and building up the team. The incentive builds confidence and motivation as we push through night practices and a truly strange semester.

Hype girls aren’t limited to dance squads. On good days, I can give the encouragement easily, but when I’m feeling sad, giving out extra hype to those I meet gives me a boost too.

A couple weeks ago, I was having a really rough day before I headed to dance practice at the studio. We were working toward a hip-hop skill called a kip-up that night. I’ve been working on this particular way of rolling onto my back and jumping to a squat position for more than two years. For me, it was an ultimate goal.

As I rolled onto the blue mats and thrust all my energy forward, I kept landing hard on my back, missing the ‘up’ part of the kip-up. Our captain demonstrated the move halfway through practice, and I envisioned exactly how she seemed to move, somehow a body roll from the bottom up.

On the next try, I finally landed on my feet. My teammates had seen it all, and cheered and clapped. I felt a rush of joy that I definitely needed at the end of a long day.

It takes extra time to work on technique but the payoff is big.

Mental wellness takes technique too. Not every style of maintaining mental wellness is fit for everyone. Some prefer meditation, even though others just fall asleep. Others prefer journaling, while some feel unfulfilled in the writing aspect.

Taking time to learn my personal wellness style has made a world of difference. And I’m still adapting while my mental and physical needs change.

The dance team is always learning new dances in different styles. One week it’s hip-hop, then pom style, then jazz. Each has a unique mood and skillset to successfully execute the routine. Honing different types of dance — or wellness — skill provides a vast library of options when I need to adapt to a new experience.

Not only has my dance technique like turns, tricks, and leaps been improving, but how I understand my self-love has grown. It’s bolstered by my lovely teammates who, of course, cheer me on every step of the way. Together with our technique, community feeling, and growing resilience, dancing joins with wellness in a way that anyone can absorb into their life.

And I couldn’t be more thankful to have my resilient, talented team by my side.