The UNB/STU Dance Team may not have taken home the top prize at Sunday’s Atlantic Collegiate Dance Competition, but they certainly made their mark.
The team played host to the first-ever competition, which saw six Atlantic universities perform choreographed numbers in at least one of three different categories.
“It went amazing,” said Amanda Maye, a fourth-year English and psychology major at St. Thomas University. “We were hoping that it was going to go this smoothly, but it went a lot better than we thought it would.”
The UNB/STU Dance Team placed first in both the open/jazz category for “Ladies and Gentlemen…” and the contemporary category for “Someone Like You,” an emotional performance to Adele’s song of the same name. The group placed third in the hip-hop category.
“We did the three pieces in our show at the beginning of the year and then we took the three group pieces and just kept working on them and cleaning them and doing a few changes here and there to make them better,” said Maye. “Our practices went from an hour and a half to four hours.”
Université de Moncton won the runner-up prize for “Split Personality,” a hip-hop number danced by eerie and colourful clowns. The team also placed first for “Why So Serious,” performed in the small group category.
Along with the competition, participants went to a workshop hosted by So You Think You Can Dance Canada 4 second runner-up Matt Marr, who also judged the performances. The event took place in the University of New Brunswick’s Lady Beaverbrook gymnasium.
“I remember when the first team started walking in I was like, ‘Oh my God, they’re here, they’re here,’” said team president Ashley Thompson, who was applauded by the packed gymnasium after being recognized as a one of the main creators of the competition. “But it’s been a long time coming and it’s a huge load off my shoulders.”
Thompson is a PhD candidate in the psychology faculty at UNB. She said she started work on the event this summer, building contacts with other university teams and seeing what the level of interest was for such a competition.
“I definitely took on more than I could handle, I think. It paid off, it went well, but I was stressed a couple of times,” said Thompson. “I had to find the balance…because I’m teaching university courses too.”
Thompson said between teaching, school work and her research, she was lucky to have dedicated team members to step up and support her.
“She contacted all of the universities, she got the building, she got the judges to come, almost everything,” said Maye of her team’s president. “We all helped collaboratively, but she was the head. There are not even words to describe how thankful we are that she worked so hard.”
Thompson said emotions were running high Sunday morning and the team was nervous not only for their performances, but for the event as a whole.
“It’s not only that we’re competing, but we’re putting on the competition. It’s definitely more high-stress than your average competition, but that just makes the end that much better.”
Stephanie Clarke-Rowinski and Stephanie Grace judged alongside Marr, a Saint John native. The judges said they marked each team hard on their performances, citing issues with control and execution of moves.
But at this level, they said, dancers should be able to take the criticism.
“We’re really satisfied and happy with the placements we got,” said Thompson. “The judging was great, the turnouts from the teams were great…I don’t think we could be happier with the way everything went and the way we performed as well.”
The UNB/STU Dance Team is a club sport under the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds. Maye said out of the 12 members in the group, three of them are STU students.
