The St. Joe’s dance team will host their fall clinic on Oct. 5. The clinic is a chance for high school dancers from around the area to take part in a college level set of workouts and drills.
According to Coach Rachel Reese ’15, it is a time for up and coming dancers to get a chance to see what dancing at the college level entails.
“We want to show them what it takes to make a college dance team by walking them through our audition process,” Reese said. “We encourage all high school dancers who want that experience of practicing for an audition. It is a great opportunity for them to come.”
The team will go through an intense warm up and then take part in both a pom technique segment and a hip hop technique section.
“It’s not an audition,” Coach Brittany Ambrose Hillman ’09 said. “It is a clinic. It is an opportunity to learn and gives them an opportunity to start working hard if they want to make this team in the future.”
For senior captain Giovanna Boscarino, she remembers coming to Michael J. Hagan Arena ’85 her senior year of high school and taking part in the fall clinic.
“It was actually my deciding factor to come to St. Joe’s,” Boscarino said. “I got a feel for how the team chemistry was built. It was like the team I was coming from at home, so it was comforting to know there were other teams that have that relationship and chemistry.”
According to Reese, situations like Boscarino’s are fairly common occurrences from the fall clinic.
“That happens often, believe it or not,” Reese said. “I think for me as a coach that is the most rewarding aspect of it because you see the growth of these dancers over such an instrumental period of time. To see them graduate at 22 with such growth and maturity, hands down that is one of the best parts of being a coach.”
While the clinic benefits dancers who are looking to continue their careers into college, it also benefits the dance team as well. As evident by Boscarino, it is used as a recruiting tool and also works as a fundraising opportunity for the team.
Boscarino said she focuses on trying to create the same environment that drew her to join the dance team.
“For the girls at the clinic we definitely want them to feel like they are at home,” Boscarino said. “We don’t need to put on a show to show the relationship we have as a team. It radiates to everyone in the room we are with.”
Hillman said she hopes her team is able to both lead the clinic while representing what St. Joe’s dance is all about.
“[We want to] help these girls fall in love with the university and our team,” Hillman said. “Really show what a wonderful group of athletes, people and women they are. Make a high schooler feel like they want to be a part of that team.”
The clinic ends with a basic question and answer portion where the high schoolers are free to ask the coaches and members of the dance team about anything regarding college.
“They can ask anything,” Reese said. “About academics, college life, to the nitty and gritty of what it is like to be a college dancer.”
Boscarino has just one piece of advice for the high schoolers who are about to dance where she danced four years ago.
“Be the best version of yourself,” Boscarino said. “And just know that this version isn’t even the best version because you don’t know your max potential.”
