Bri Funte | Contributing Writer
The Buena Vista University (BVU) Dance Team will be performing at the state dance/drill team competition on Friday, Nov. 30, 2012. This is not the first year that BVU has had a dance team; however, it will be their first ever appearance at state. The team was prepared to compete at state last year, but it wasn’t approved to make the venture until this season.
The eight dancers, coached by Colleen Wabeke, will be performing a pom routine to “Give Me Some Lovin’” at 5:30 p.m. in Des Moines at the Wells Fargo Arena. They will be competing against 10 other collegiate teams including Morningside, Wartburg, Central, and Coe. The girls have been practicing this specific routine since September of this year and continue to practice intensely until their competition date. The squad is excited and has taken extra initiatives to ensure they are at their best come the end of November. Kaitlin Franken has also been an added tool for the team. Franken formerly danced at Iowa Central and was a National Dance Association instructor. She choreographed most of the pom routine and has also helped critique. In addition, the girls have taken individual responsibility. 
Lourdes Arreola, a second year dancer, explains how the girls generally get together outside of their weekly practices. “These extra practices are very important since we only get time with our coaches on Sundays. We try to have everything memorized by the time we meet on Sundays, so we can just add more to the dance and clean-up different things.”
The opportunity to dance at state competition is important to the team for a variety of reasons. Several of the current dancers participated in dance prior to attending BVU and will see many of their high school teams while in Des Moines.
“A very exciting thing is having our high schools watch us perform and show them that you can continue to do what you like at a higher level. Most of the high school dancers wait to watch the colleges perform, so we are role models to them. It’s a huge honor,” Arreola said. Some of the dance members have not been to state yet but look forward to the opportunity.
You can see the first performance of the team’s pom routine on Tuesday, Nov. 13 at the pre-state showcase in Alta, Iowa and then again on Wednesday, Nov. 28 at the BVU basketball games.
The team hopes that their appearance at state will prove the successful capabilities of the BVU Dance Team.
Photo courtesy of BVU
