Cheer-Dance Team Clinic

Dorothy did a week long dance and cheer clinic through the local high school, where the high school girls teach the local kindergarten through eighth grade girls a short cheer and a dance routine.  It was about as chaotic as you would expect, but she seemed to have a lot of fun, and even got to reacquaint with a good friend from her old school who also happened to be participating.  What a nice surprise!

On Friday, the girls performed at halftime of the Freshman football game.  It was cute and fun, and we stayed for the Varsity game, which was immediately after.

At the entrance to the field.  The team is the Chargers.

Walking out for halftime.

Lining the little ones up was a bit like herding cats.  Dorothy stood out there and was just waving and waving.  We assumed that she was waving at us, but when we told her we saw her waving at us, she corrected us and told us that she was waving at Gage (a boy from her class at school - his older sister is on the high school dance team).

Here is a video of her performance.  This is just the kindergarten through third graders.  The fourth through eighth graders performed after the little kids.  They started quicker than I anticipated, so I missed the very beginning.  Oops!

 After the performance, she wanted to pose for photos.

More posing, and this is where we realized that she had retied her shirt much high than I had it originally.  She had also rolled her pants over a few times, so there is a lot of belly showing here.  High school is going to be a fun time with this one.

Back in the stands, Dorothy begged to be able to sit with her friend she had been waving at from the field.

 Kevin and I were interested in checking out the high school band.  Things we learned:

1.  There are 132 members of the band (not a bad size).
2.  The dance team is not part of the band.
3.  There were only 3-4 flag/guard members.  It was a bit confusing because there were four at pregame, then three for the first song at halftime.  Then those three left the field and the fourth one rejoined them on the sidelines.  Then all four went back out out on the field, but one did a solo (not the one who had been MIA earlier) while the other three did something else.  It was not executed nor choreographed well, and I was less than impressed.  Hopefully, it's just early in the season, and something better is in the works.
4.  The band did some basic formations, but is not drum corps style.  That bodes well for Dorothy potentially being allowed to twirl, if she wants, when she goes there.


The kids were getting antsy in the stands, so we let Malcolm, Dorothy, and her friend all go down in the grass next to the bleaches to run around a bit.  They did things like tossing a tinfoil ball back and forth (foil hamburger wrapper from dinner) to playing hide-and-seek.  While playing hide-and-seek, Dorothy ran her head into the underside of the bleachers.  Malcolm and her friend, ran up to the stands to tell us, "Dorothy is bleeding!"

Well, that could mean anything.  Malcolm has said the same thing, in the same way, for a paper cut, so we assumed that she had scrapped her knee or something.  Kevin went to investigate and while he was on his way down, the guy sitting behind me tells me, "There she is!  With the medic."

Yep, Dorothy ended up out on the track, being tended to by the team medical staff.  Kevin even had to talk to the school athletic director for a bit.  They stopped the bleeding and checked her for a concussion, and she was fine; just embarrassed and worried she will have a bald spot.  It was just a small head cut, but it did bleed like crazy.

She was upset to get blood on her new shirt.  Since I hadn't washed it yet, it still had a coating on it, and all the blood washed right out.

Other than our rough ending, it was a fun night, and our first real experience with the local high school.  We were impressed with their student section, in that there were a fair number of students there, and they were actively involved with cheering for the team.  Hopefully, she will only remember the fun parts and will want to do the clinic again next year.