Ragin’ Jazz: Dance Team among top at nationals

Ragin’ Jazz: Dance Team among top at nationals

Amber Craig, Vermilion Staff

The University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Ragin’ Jazz dance team surpassed their goals and captured a spot as one of the top dance teams in the nation at the 2006 Universal Dance Association (UDA) Collegiate
Nationals competition.
From Jan. 16-18, the Ragin’ Jazz competed in the UDA Nationals competition in Orlando, Fla., placing fifth in the hip hop category and ninth in the jazz category in Division 1A.
“We started doing the costumes in early October, ordering the different material, the different skirts and rhinestones, and everything associated with it," said Ragin’ Jazz adviser Ross Walters. “They actually started learning the dance in November."
According to Walters, working towards nationals begins the previous July when dancers attend camp to qualify for nationals.
“It’s just mainly one competition we do, and then everything else is football, basketball, the standard university activities," Walters said.
With less than three months to learn two dances, the practice schedule required the dancers to sacrifice a part of their winter holidays to perfect their routines.
“We had three hours a day, every day, except Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve (and) New Year’s day," said the team’s co-captain Leah LeBlanc, 22, a junior in child and family studies.
LeBlanc, a Ragin’ Jazz dancer since the 2001-2002 season, said in the past UL Lafayette has not won many nationals competitions, and she said part of the team’s success this year has to do with Walters recruiting dancers from local high schools with records of winning national championships.
“It’s just these past two years, the team has really stepped up, gone out there and done what we have to do to build a name for our school and represent our school well," LeBlanc said. “And a lot of that has to do with Ross’s job. He goes out and he recruits dancers in the area."
LeBlanc also said that Carencro High, Lafayette High, St. Thomas Moore and Teurlings High School all have dance teams that place in the top 10 at nationals.
“This year, everyone on our team besides myself and three other girls are from those four schools," she said.
Team captain Christal Grogan, 21, a senior in biology, has been with the team since the 2003-2004 season. Grogan said the team accomplished one of its goals – to place in the top 10 in one category and in the top five in the other.
“Going in there, I can definitely say that my only expectation was that everybody would do their best," Grogan said.
Grogan and LeBlanc both said, as team leaders, their primary focus was on keeping the other dancers motivated, especially while the team not only prepared for nationals but also danced at other functions. As part of her job, Grogan reads motivational sayings from a book to the team before every practice session and applied them to their situation.
“A lot of those quotes from (the book) related to dancing," Grogan said. “And if they didn’t, we made them relate to dancing."
“We think we did a good job with the team and trying to get everyone on the same page as far as goals and what to expect," LeBlanc said. “Because not only do we have nationals, but in the middle of that, we have football season, men’s and women’s basketball, plus any community performances."
While this is Grogan’s last year with the team, she said if she was to serve as captain next year, her goal would be to place in the top five in two categories.
“We have a lot of talented girls on the team, and they all put forth their effort, which made it easier because you can’t just have one person carrying the load for the team," Grogan said. “Everybody has to put in 110 percent for everything to be successful."
Tryouts for the Ragin’ Jazz 2006-07 season are scheduled for April 7 and 8, and interested students can call 482-6371 for more information.

Published February 8, 2006