Saturday, January 21st, Woodland held its annual “Dancin’ In The Woods” Competition, and it was another success.
Dancin’ In The Woods is a competition that is run by the Woodland Hawks Varsity Dance Team. It happens once a year in January and attracts quite the crowd.
Months of planning by the booster club goes into the competition. Although the booster club primarily sets up and runs the competition, it is a group effort between the dancers, moms, dads, siblings, and friends. All the help makes this competition be as successful as it is.
Dancers and booster club members arrive at 10 a.m. to start setting up for the day. These preparations include the concession and admission stands, registration, merchandise, and trophies.
At 12:15 the dance team meets to run their spacing in the gym, and then go get ready in the locker room. As music blasts, the girls help each other with their hair and make up to look stage ready for when they perform later and as they welcome other teams.
At around 1:45 is when the girls start doing their individual jobs. Before the actual competition starts, there are a few main jobs. The two captains alongside coach Jenn Cataldi run the registration table. As teams are directed inside the building by some of the dads, Catadli and the captain’s, Kaylin Giuliani and Grace Tottenham welcome them, make sure all their paperwork is complete and send them to the runners. The runners bring the teams into their designated rooms as they show them where they will be doing their spacing and timing before they go on stage.
Although the Woodland Dance Team is not allowed to compete in the competition, they still open the event with a performance. This year they did their Jazz dance to the song “Rome” by Dermot Kennedy. Once the girls finish their performance, they go back to doing their jobs.
During the competition, the masters of ceremonies are captains Guiliani and Tottenham.
“I like finally being able to watch the competition,” said Giuliani. “Compared to previous years being behind the scenes.”
Other jobs done by the girls included judges assistant, goodluck wishes, score runners, and regular runners. Family and friends ran the concession and admission stands, timing before teams go on stage, and parking.
The competition had a great turn out. It lasted from 4 o’clock to about 8 o’clock with 17 schools participating. The bleachers were full of supporters cheering for the competing teams. The overall high score went to Norwich Free Academy.
“I think it went really smoothly and all the other teams were super nice,” said Genevieve Bandanza, dance team freshman. “For my first year, I’m very happy with how fun and worry free the competition was.”
