On Saturday February 27th, The Ohio State University competed in its first swing dance competition. And it was awesome.
The Dayton Swing Smackdown is kind of a big deal around these parts. Teams battling from across the tri-state area, colleges fielding teams of their own, etc.
OSU Swing Dance Club had decided awhile ago to attempt to field a competition team this year, but we hadn’t had the time to put one together until mid-January. We met a bit, brainstormed some ideas, and several people came up with the song and theming ideas. This was my choreographing debut, filling in about 70% of the final show’s choreography. The rest was put into place with the help of other team members and our awesome Swing Dance Club advisor Neil.
We were making small tweaks and choreography changes all the way up until the week of the Smackdown. The entire show, from mixing the music to performing and competing, happened in just a little over a month. The show itself is a timeless tale of too many gals and not enough guys to go around, with a pretty awesome twist at the end.
And thanks to the hard work of the team, our advisor Neil, and several people from SwingColumbus who helped us, our end product looked pretty spiffy.
Like, Collegiate Battle Champion spiffy. College Cup spiffy.
That’s right. The OSU JitterBucks (name decided only about a week before competition) shocked the college division and took first place among university clubs, despite it being our first time out to Smackdown.
The feeling was incredible; when they announced our names I could hardly believe it! We were all grateful to just be there and hold our own in competition; I don’t think any of us truly believed we had it in us to win on our very first go around. All the colleges there looked fantastic, and OSU looks forward to defending their new title as Collegiate Battle Champion in 2011. Afterall, we’re undefeated in competition (1-0 record), and that’s something we’re going to have to work even harder next year to protect!
Take care,
Rob
The Dayton Swing Smackdown is kind of a big deal around these parts. Teams battling from across the tri-state area, colleges fielding teams of their own, etc.
OSU Swing Dance Club had decided awhile ago to attempt to field a competition team this year, but we hadn’t had the time to put one together until mid-January. We met a bit, brainstormed some ideas, and several people came up with the song and theming ideas. This was my choreographing debut, filling in about 70% of the final show’s choreography. The rest was put into place with the help of other team members and our awesome Swing Dance Club advisor Neil.
We were making small tweaks and choreography changes all the way up until the week of the Smackdown. The entire show, from mixing the music to performing and competing, happened in just a little over a month. The show itself is a timeless tale of too many gals and not enough guys to go around, with a pretty awesome twist at the end.
And thanks to the hard work of the team, our advisor Neil, and several people from SwingColumbus who helped us, our end product looked pretty spiffy.
Like, Collegiate Battle Champion spiffy. College Cup spiffy.
That’s right. The OSU JitterBucks (name decided only about a week before competition) shocked the college division and took first place among university clubs, despite it being our first time out to Smackdown.
The feeling was incredible; when they announced our names I could hardly believe it! We were all grateful to just be there and hold our own in competition; I don’t think any of us truly believed we had it in us to win on our very first go around. All the colleges there looked fantastic, and OSU looks forward to defending their new title as Collegiate Battle Champion in 2011. Afterall, we’re undefeated in competition (1-0 record), and that’s something we’re going to have to work even harder next year to protect!
Take care,
Rob
