UDA Nationals 2019 set the bar for the year to come for Southside High School Dance Team. As a first year competing dance team the pressure was on to create a team that was technically sound and cohesive.  This team would eventually learn that trusting each other, and putting yourself 100% on the line physically and emotionally, was what the word Nationals really meant.

I competed at UDA Nationals with two teams, Teurling’s Catholic High School (9th and 10th grade), and Lafayette High School (11th and 12th grade). As a dancer on these teams I was fortunate enough to make it to finals all four years, placing in the top 10 of UDA’s National Dance Teams every year! This year was my first year as a dance team coach, and boy did I not know what nationals would entail as a coach.

I remember trying to explain to them what it would feel like walking onto a nationals stage, onto a floor that you’ve never performed on before, in front of a crowd that you’ve never seen, in front of teams from all over the world. It’s like magic the second you step onto that stage. Something changes when you take that first step. You want to perform to the best of your abilities. You want to show everyone exactly who you are and how good your team is, and that you can perform as one.  My team didn’t understand the magic of the stage, of THAT stage, until they got to dance on it for the first time. That stage pushes you past limits you never knew you had. It changes you as a performer and an artist. Most of my girls have always performed and competed at a studio level. Those stages are beautiful, the lighting is made perfectly for you, and the crowd is nothing but your parents rooting and cheering you on. The difference here is that the nationals stage is not only that but is a place to prove yourself and a place to show exactly how bad you want it.

Our goal this year was to make an impression, to learn, and to also let others know that we were here. Our theme was “Uncharted”, & “Ready or Not Here We Come.” I thought that these themes were the most appropriate, number one because we are the Southside High School and our mascot is the Shark. Sharks swim in uncharted waters all the time and it may not always be a successful swim or successful run however they do this fearlessly. I thought that was the motivation that my team would need to not only step on the stage but also to put themselves out there and try to create a name for themselves. And that’s exactly what they did.

Unfortunately we did not move past the first round which was hard to swallow seeing as most of my dancers on my team have been national champions underneath their studios. They did however learn that the world stage is much bigger. That stage will humble you, and so worth the work, sweat, tears, and everything else that goes into building a team.  We did not advance to the first round but we did gain confidence, we did gain validation, and we gained an experience.

Upon finishing our final performance, although moral was low, the girls wiped their tears and sat with me and watched. We watched other teams fight for the title.  We watched other teams fight for each other. We watched other teams perform and execute technical elements that we had never seen. And now leaving the nationals stage, that world stage that proves to you exactly what you can do,  we are hungrier than ever!

Our music was the driving force, made personally by the team at cheMIXtry and it was an amazing source of inspiration for the team. As fate would have it we performed our hip-hop dance, which was themed uncharted, first.  As a new team we stepped out on that stage with 14 girls and left as one. We decided to explore the uncharted waters we had never been in before. The dancers danced their hearts out and truly enjoyed their experience for those two amazing minutes.

After performing hip-hop we found out that we did not move forward which again as I stated before was humbling, but the girls had even more fire in their eyes, more power in their bodies, and wanted to do it again. We went in for our jazz routine, which was themed ready or not here we come. Although we did make some mistakes, some that we had never made before, I am so proud of those 14 girls for stepping onto that stage.  Once we completed both routines we decided that the past was the past and we decided that we couldn’t wait to do it again. This experience has been something that I’ve worked for for over 10 years and I feel so truly blessed to have been a part of this. I want to thank cheMIXtry for giving us the music that we needed to keep us focused and inspired to be the best dancers and team that we could be. We look forward to performing again at the 2020 UDA National Dance Championships, and we look forward to stepping our feet onto that magic stage.

–Bri Sanford, author

Coach of Southside High School Dance Team

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Owner, The Raxx