Taking on a lead role with the MATC dance team
Matt Daniels
Issue date: 10/28/09 Section: Sports
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During the 2008 fall semester, Mason was interested in being part of the dance team. After doing some digging in the athletic department she discovered that the team needed to be run by a student coordinator. Mason took on the role of student coordinator and coach last year while also dancing on the team.
This season, however, Mason decided to move into a new role and will not be dancing with the team. Directing a team for the first time last year taught Mason how much work goes into running a team. This year she will focus solely on coaching. "This year I have moved into more of a student coordinator slash coaching position," said Mason.
With not enough time in a day to both dance and coordinate a team, something had to give. Mason decided she wanted to continue to lead the team this year, so she gave up dancing in the performances. While she enjoys dancing, she would much rather teach dance and choreograph the routines.
"I like the dancing and it's fun, but I really like doing the choreography and teaching people," said Mason. When it comes to choreography, she is no amateur. She has experience from choreographing dance routines and musicals when she was in high school.
This year about 30 people tried out for the dance team and 14 people made the team at the end of the three-day tryouts. The team is composed of 13 females and one male this year. There are three dancers from last year's team that are returning for a second year: Diana Toonen, Courtney Odom and Clarrisa Pearce. Toonen and Odom are returning as team captains this season.
Last year the team started with 14 dancers and, by the end of the season, there were only eight dancers left on the team. Mason thinks that the number of dancers dropped throughout the year because the time commitment was not thoroughly addressed.
A goal of Mason's this year was to be more upfront about the extensive time commitment. The team practices six to seven hours per week, with each practice being pretty grueling. She has also laid out detailed expectations this year for the captains, the dancers and for herself.
"My goal is just to make it a better program every year and have more and more people be interested in it and make more people aware of it," she said.
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