Posted 8/7/25 10:45 pm
Day 4 of the in-between week! Anyone else think that the term “dead week” is just a bit Halloweenish?
Quick pom tosses:
The dog days of summer are here — hot, humid, hazy days where everything is supposed to be slow and syrupy. My dog is definitely in lounge mode whenever we try to go on a legit walk in this weather.
Speaking of heat, as I write this during the 9pm hour it’s 81 outside here at 8CA headquarters…factor in the humidity and it feels like 90. Scrolling around the IL temps on my Wunderground app, it’s 5 to 10 degrees cooler away from the Chicago metro, but of course the humidity’s higher with all that corn. I guessssss I’d rather deal with the nighttime heat and humidity instead of the farmland option of a wee bit cooler but monstrous humidity?
I’m prepping for recording our weekly podcast tomorrow morning (a rough outline, some ideas that might or might not work, trying to decide if I can edit 2 interviews or just 1). I have to give my co-host, Coach Paige Hollendonner, so much credit for putting up with my habit of springing topics on her just before I hit “record.” So much for the Thursday night show prep!
Not gonna lie, there’s some really good car wash options coming up…though I’ve got a plateful of music orders and some low key ambitious projects around the house that need to get done before school starts. But I hope everyone’s cool with me showing up to car washes but not getting the old RAV4 washed!
So which dance team loves their school’s football legacy like no other? Based on what I see EVERY FALL, I’m going with Montini. One of their posts today puts the spotlight on celebrating 10 years since their football team achieved its historic undefeated season.
Deep dive / deep plie:
Which got me thinking…is there an equivalent in the dance team world to going undefeated? Like, are there teams that show up to all their regular season comps and take home a 1st every time? I mean, it SEEMS like it, when you think about the big names in the sport.
But then again, maybe not? We’re in the era where teams are eager to go to the biggest, baddest, rough-you-up comps where probably-going-to-state teams go up against each other. So it’s hard to expect a team to pick up 1sts at all their comps plus win those huge comps as well. And notice how we usually say, “We got first at ___” instead of, “We won at ___.”
Then, factor in conference comps where divisions / classes are off the table, and you may get a killer 2A team up against a fearsome 3A team. That really turns down the probability of an “undefeated” season.
And, the big one — obviously to be undefeated you’d have to win state—and this has rarely been a sure thing for even the top-tier dance teams. There’s ALWAYS some kind of uncertainty on Day 2 in Bloomington, and in the Grand Champion titles for each class at Springfield.
Thanks for hanging with me through this thought exercise, but actually, lemme flip it. I think it’s a good thing that we can’t always come up with parallels between dance team and traditional team sports (the “stick and ball” sports, as I like to say on the podcast). Dance is fundamentally different, not just because it’s judged (or “adjudicated,” if you saw my Word Of The Day repost today!), but also because it’s an art.
Fall is football, and football is king, whether that’s right or not. We’re about to be flooded with football language and ideals and imagery. Incorporating and adopting that into your dance team’s mindset can be helpful and fun, but I’d be wary of taking it too far. Nothing wrong with going with the fall flow — having the heart of a champion, defending your house, etc etc etc.
I’m just sayin’ — that kind of stuff, though useful in some important ways, is a million miles away from a lot of the core artistic pillars of dancing on a dance team. Like looking like you’re *loving* your 90 seconds on the halftime field, fighting to not fall out of a turn, or getting the right step length in your calypso prep.
Tomorrow I’ll share a couple thoughts on ways you actually can go undefeated in dance!
Today’s random pic: Look at that amazing floor! Andrew JV sends some love to the crowd before they debut their routine at their home comp last November.
Literally has nothing to do with dance: Raise your poms if you ever had to watch a training video at your new job. Here are some gems from the ’80s and ’90s. The last :30 is proof that you can’t beat the social opportunities at Jewel.