By Liam Reilly
@liampreilly852
With the seats in the Fuller Arts Center packed with friends, families and other supporters, the Pride Dance Team (PDT) took to the stage for their annual showcase. The showcase took place over the weekend on Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at noon. Those in attendance were able to see the team perform its game day routines, competition dances and dances choreographed by the dancers.
The Pride Dance Team is one of 15 competitive club sports teams offered at Springfield College. PDT is split up into two teams, a game day team and a competition team. The game day team can be spotted during halftimes of football and basketball games, while the competition team faces off against other schools.
So far this season, the team has hosted dance clinics to teach attendees about college dance, performed at a Springfield Thunderbirds game and now has wrapped up their annual showcase.
This year’s show featured two acts consisting of 26 dances. Some of the dances included popular songs such as “Mr. Worldwide” by Pitbull and “Physical” by Olivia Newton-John.
Preparation for this year’s show was different from the past couple of years as head coach Alexia Dulieu is on maternity leave. This led to the show being fully student-run and led by the team’s three captains – Hannah McIntosh, Megan Kammer and Caroline Sugrue.
“I was a captain last year, so I knew what went into it, but it was more because we had more dances and we didn’t have our coach,” McIntosh said. “We started planning it earlier and we had a lot of really big goals that we wanted to do for the show, so it was bigger than before, but it wasn’t too bad. We started planning it over the summer, so we’ve kind of spread it out over a long time.”
Making the show bigger was a tall task, but was beneficial for the team. This year’s squad only had 14 dancers, with one currently studying abroad in Italy. With 22 dances and only 13 girls, it can get exhausting fast.
The team’s solution was having more guest studios be a part of the event. At last year’s showcase only one guest studio participated, while this year there were four. The PDT used their connections to reach out to each of the studios.
“One of the studios is owned or run by one of the dance professors here and I was in a class with her last semester, so I asked her in class,” McIntosh said. “Two girls danced at one of the studios in high school and another one of the teams we’ve connected before with different dance clinics we ran. We messaged Western New England on Instagram, because they’re local and a small team, so it’s nice to connect with them.”
McIntosh was also in charge of choreographing four separate dances, including her own senior solo. At the team’s annual showcase, seniors are honored for their hard work and dedication to the program by choosing their own solo dance. McIntosh chose Hometown Glory as her dance and at the end of her performance she was met by the team rushing on stage to hug her in an emotional moment.
“I didn’t know until the day of the first show because mine was the last solo in the program,” McIntosh said. “I was sitting in the wings for the first one and one of the other captains said “I didn’t want to tell you this because you’re also a senior but just so you know we’re all going to rush out and hug Katie [St. Angelo].” It was a sweet moment.”
Choreographing dances isn’t just an upperclassmen privilege, as first year dancer Sarah Draper got to choreograph a dance to the song False Confidence. Choreographing a dance in her first year on the PDT was something Draper wasn’t expecting.
“It was a very special moment,” Draper said. “Coming in I was like “Oh yeah I’m just going to be performing at games and being part of the team”, but I did not expect to choreograph my own group as a freshman. False confidence was about telling people that social media isn’t what you think it is, people can be fake so just stay tuned to yourself and that’s all that matters.”
Draper also shared what she’s looking forward to for the rest of the year with the team and her experience in her first PDT annual showcase.
“I’m looking forward to making more memories, performing the last couple of basketball games and supporting the competition team on going to Nationals,” Draper said. “Participating in the annual showcase was definitely an amazing experience. Being surrounded by everyone who loves to dance and put in the hard work was an amazing feeling.”
In her four years with the team, McIntosh has gotten to experience multiple showcases in Fuller, competitions and even the team placing second in jazz and fourth in pom, a dance characterized by the use of pom poms, at the 2023 Dance Team Union National Competition. Looking back, being on the dance team has been a big influence on McIntosh’s life.
“It’s been my favorite thing since coming to Springfield,” McIntosh said. “It is where I spend most of my time and where I met all of my friends. We’re all always there for each other, hanging out, it’s a great time to be together at the studio. We all love dancing and to be together and work hard. It’s nice to really work together with a group of people that are focused on the same thing.”