My Experiences in Folk Dance

So as I was walking through the WILK today, my attention was directed at something bright and colorful. It was the little booth-type thing for the folk dance ensemble. I looked around, had a very brief chat with some chick and picked up a flyer. I then came back to my dorm and checked out the team. I thought, "hey, why not?" and asked my roomamtes if they would think it was a crazy idea. They laughed a bit and Katie was all for going with me. Here was where we ran into problems. On the flyer it said that the girls must bring a man with them to audition. I have no close guy friends here, so I was out of luck until Katie called up some friends and found us two boys!

So, we went to the ballroom at the assigned time and waited around with the masses. We filled out little papers and such, then it started. There was about 20 minutes with the boys where we did some random steps, depending on who was your partner, it was easy or hard and we changed partners often. Then, the boys went off and the girls were left to learn more. We did some other relatively simple steps and they handed out call back sheets. At this point, they began to go for endurance, so we were basically run/skip/dancing in circles for long periods of time (ok, so they probably weren't actually that long, but they felt long). Then the girls who got called back waited around for the boys to finish their auditions. When they did, we went into the other room and danced some more. We learned a Ukranian dance, a clogging dance, and a Chinese dance. It was lots of fun. Throughout the night, they pulled people out and assigned them teams. At a certain point, they broke everyone off into the groups of the time slots they had open for practice. My time slot was not called, so I asked and she said that it was full. I was a little sad, but it's not like I set my heart on this.

My roommate was still going so I sat in the back and watched. Then, about 4 minutes later, they call out "Are numbers 114 and 87 still here?" and I look down, and there it was, 87. I went up to talk to them and they asked if that was really the only spot we could do and if i was available on the MWF 9am schedule. I told them that I have class till 8:50 and another class that starts at 10, and they assured me I would be fine, so I said yeah, that sounds great. Then we filled out add class forms and gave our email and cell info and were herded up to a classroom where there was an ongoing spheel going on. I learned that there were three levels of teams and we were on the lowest (no surprise really). Just above us is the backup performance team. They do what we do and more including a tour of schools in Utah. Then there is the Performaning Arts Company, which is the highest level. They are the ones who get to do the cool stuff like go to Europe.

So there it is, I get to do something fun, and I even get a credit for it!