St. Thomas University has gained a new club team this year: a dance team.
First-year student Elizabeth Polk is the creator and captain of the dance team. Polk has been dancing for as long as she can remember and wanted to create a dance team at St. Thomas so she can share her passion and knowledge of dance with others.
“It’s what I like to do. I like to teach and perform at basketball games,” said Polk.
The team has various levels of dance experience. There are those who’ve been competing in dance for years and those who have just started to dance for sport since joining the St. Thomas team. There are currently 10 dancers in the group.
The team performs during half time at the men’s and women’s basketball games, along with other sporting or special events. They had their first performance on Nov. 4. Polk said she thought it went well.
“I was nervous about performing. It was the launching of the dance team and I wasn’t sure if we’d pull it together at the last minute,” she said.
The team is currently considered a club, not an official sports team. However, Polk said she has a goal for the team.
“The goal after four years is to try and make it a sports team,” said Polk.
Polk said this isn’t something she wanted to happen right away.
“We wanted to keep it a club for the first year to make sure that it’s solid, that there’s girls that are continuously showing up to practice and showing dedication.”
For now the dancers will be performing at events, and Polk hopes by next fall they’ll be able to compete.
“We are looking into competitions, but for right now I think we’re sticking to basketball games and events the university wants us to perform at,” she said.
“Next year we’ll start considering competitions more.”
If the team begins to compete next year the Tommie’s would compete against universities like Dalhousie, Mount Allison, Saint Mary’s and the University of New Brunswick.
At the moment, the dance team is taking a break from performing until second semester. Once second semester starts back up the team will start up again. Polk said anyone is welcome to join.
