Dance Technique - Auditions

Alison walks us through her tips, tricks, and how-tos on general dance technique to have down for dance team auditions:

Hey everyone! My name is Alison Hughes and I had the opportunity to dance for the Denver Nuggets for three seasons. It was such a fun time of my life and loved every minute of it.

I grew up in Virginia, dancing at my studio and high school competitively. I was then blessed to dance for four years in college at the University of Tennessee before moving out to Colorado. I missed dancing so much when I moved to Colorado that I decided to try out for the Denver Nuggets. They have a pretty lengthy audition process but it was such a blast! I will be helping you out and talking to you about the importance of technique when trying out for any dance team or poms team. I cannot wait!

Technique is a fundamental, no matter the style of dance. Not only is it a requirement in itself, but it carries over to your performance ability and choreography execution.

Although what you see from dancers on game days is majority choreography and/or sidelines - we all have a technical background, especially at the collegiate and professional level.

If you plan to audition for a professional dance team, you HAVE to put the time into your technical skills. I have never been to a single dance team audition where technique was not a requirement, even at the basic of levels (double turns, 6-steps across the floor, kicks, leaps.)

Although technique doesn’t always have to be your strongest suit and requirements vary across teams, you NEED to have the basics down-pact. Not only will it reflect in your across the floor technique skills, but in your:

  • Dance style

  • Overall demeanor

  • Choreography execution

  • Motion fluidity

  • Overall performance

Turning

Double or triple turns

  • What the judges really look for in your double/triple pirouette is whether you stay in your spot and on a high relevé.

  • Think of lifting up throughout the entire turn (especially right at the end to finish strong).

  • Make sure to have a consistent spot to really nail the turn.

  • Think of your body as a pole and make sure that you are completely straight up and down, from your feet on the floor to the top of your head.

Turns in second/tours (whatever your team calls them) - for 2-eight counts

  • What the judges really look for is consistent height of the leg out in second and spotting the same spot on every rotation.

  • Make sure your leg stays out at second. You can practice this by holding on to the wall, putting your leg in second, and practice plié into relevé while keeping your leg a consistent height (without turning so that you are strengthening your leg).

Leaps

Right and left leaps

  • What the judges really look for is that your legs are in a completely straight line/split.

  • Make sure that you really stretch and practice flexibility in order to hit a full split.

  • Really use your plié in order to have longer air time so that both legs get all the way up.

Center leaps

  • What the judges look for is the height of the legs in this jump.

  • Practice your toe touches a lot, aiming to almost hit a V with your legs.

  • My personal trick - bring your legs in front of you rather than right out to the side and aim for your feet to point to the corners of the room you are in. This will help you sit in that jump and allow that “pop” to happen.

  • Once you have a great toe touch, just incorporate that into your center leap. Really use your plié and it should get nice and high like your toe touch.

Turning discs

  • Use those same tricks but adding a chaîné turn before and opening up to the front.

Flexibility:

  • High kicks to the front on both sides

  • High kicks to the side on both sides

Training in all styles of dance:

Jazz

  • Make sure to incorporate a lot of technique in a jazz routine, whether it is a slow jazz or sassy jazz routine, it should still have technical elements to show off those skills.

Hip Hop

  • I am not a hip hopper. I never took hip hop until I went to college but - CONFIDENCE is key. Just groove to the music and be confident. Hip hop should be fun!

Pom

  • Every motion should have a stopping point.

Your own solo

  • Make sure this shows off your style and the technique that you really excel at.

A lot of sass - IN EVERYTHING!

My last little bit of advice for anyone auditioning for a dance team: