Dance/Drill is back for an exciting 2024-2025 season!
Saturday will mark the first weekend of competition for the Dance/Drill season. Dance teams throughout Oregon have already been hard at work for several months.
Last March, we witnessed many teams put their best foot forward at the OSAA Dance/Drill State Championships. These teams took a brief break to catch their breath, but not for long. For many teams, spring try-outs were held months ago, establishing their crews for the 24/25 season. Beginning this weekend, dance team judges and fans will begin to see how several months of summertime technique classes, attending dance camps, selecting team captains and team leaders, negotiating gym time with volleyball teams and basketball shoot-arounds, crafting half-time routines and performing at school assemblies will blossom into the dynamic dances that teams prepare for competition.
New teams on the scene this year, either returning after a hiatus or brand new to Dance/Drill, include Newport, Crater, Benson, Sweet Home, and Glencoe. Some of these teams are just getting started, so we won't see them until later this season, but we welcome them with an open "port de bras" and look forward to seeing them on the dance floor.
Clackamas Cavalettes will host the first weekend of competition Saturday, with nearly two dozen teams sharing their work. Also playing host to teams over the next few weeks: Reynolds & West Albany (11/23), Rex Putnam (12/7), and the DDCA Invitational (12/14), held at Wilsonville.
The DDCA Invitational, December 14, will be the final competition of 2024 and serve as a culminating event for four dance team categories - Modern, Contemporary, Novelty, and the newer Solo/Duo/Trio category. For these four categories, the November and December competitions are where they get to shine. It might be dreary and cold outside, but within the competition gym, these dances shine bright.
The conclusion of the DDCA Invitational will also unofficially mark the beginning of that dynamic journey that dance team fans follow so closely with anticipation and excitement, the journey towards the OSAA Dance/Drill State Championships. The teams that don’t participate in the early competitions will finalize their team rosters in the next several weeks, start to craft routines, and join the action in the new year with the hope that they will reach the state championship floor.
Categories that are carried throughout the full dance team season include Pom, Hip Hop, Jazz, and Kick. These categories will also be hitting the floor with vigor in the next few weeks, because qualifying a second routine for the state championship in March requires a minimum score of 70 and various time requirements. All teams can bring a first routine to the state championship without a qualifying score. Later in the season, starting in January, fans will also see Show and Traditional categories introduced.
Scattered within and among these several weekends of upcoming dance competitions, will be All-State and Dance Scholarship auditions (12/8), Academic and Diversity Scholarship application submissions, even more half time and assembly performances, and of course, drill-down battles. The excitement never ends! Well, at least until March, at the OSAA Dance/Drill State Championships at the Salem Pavilion (3/21 & 3/22).
Best of luck to all dancers and dance teams this season!
