AU Rhythm

As of about a month ago, I am now a member of AU Rhythm, Auburn's competitive/performance hip hop dance team. We perform at various events throughout the community and on campus, as well as basketball games, volleyball games, gymnastics meets, etc., and hopefully this spring we will be going to 106 Park on BET in New York City. Though the team was not founded until 2004, the program has made tremendous amounts of progress since it began in 2004. This month alone, we are competing in 2 dance competitions, one in Tuskegee and one in Huntsville. We also have 4 different dance performances scheduled this month as well. Normally, we have practice on Sunday and Thursday nights from 7-9pm, but starting October 4th we begin practice everyday in order to be ready for the busy month(s) ahead. Though practice everyday can seem a bit tedious, practices are always a great time. Everyone on the team is really outgoing, so there's always laughter and fun going on, even when we are working hard at practice. For the past month or so, we have been learning a new dance almost every single practice. Learning a new dance each practice can get to be overwhelming at times, but everyone is really helpful and the dances are a lot of fun to perform so it all comes together in the end. In order to ensure that we look together as a team throughout each dance, we often break up into small groups ranging from 2-5 people so that it is easy to see if something needs to be fixed and who needs to fix it. Our goal for all of our routines on AU Rhythm is to look like one person dancing the entire time, not 20 individual people dancing the entire time. Right now is definitely a crucial time for the team because we are trying to make sure that we can raise enough money to help pay for the competitions we have coming up. We are selling t-shirts that promote AU Rhythm and we are also having 2 receipt nights this month; one at McAllister's and one at Applebees. With our first performance only a week away (Hey Day, October 7th) we are buckling down at practice and starting to see everything come together. Be sure to look out for AU Rhythm performances this month at several events on campus (Hey Day, Miss Black and Gold, Stomp Out Hunger, Mr. BLT); you won't want to miss our routines this year!