Dance Company Intercultural Experience As an individual, I spent most of my childhood playing team sports. I was involved with softball and enjoyed playing basketball in my free time. Since I have been so busy with softball and basketball I never got a chance to experience any other sports in my life. So I decided it would be a great experience to learn about the wonderful dance culture by watching the Dance Company tryouts. Many people would be shocked realizing that the dance culture is very physical and demanding, due to the very common stereotype that dance is not a sport.
The dancer’s tryout was in a Martindale Gym, which was filled a lot of contestants ready to tryout. They started right away by welcoming all the girls and wishing them all good luck. There was one captain that led the dancers with stretches to warm them up. The Dance Company returning girls clearly have bonded as a teammates because there was constant laughter and everyone in the room interacted with each other including the people trying out. When they were done stretching the captain told everyone to sit down so they could watch the dances that they were going to be doing for the tryout.
The captain and three other girls were in the front row, in front of the mirror in the gym, while the girls were in rows behind them sitting down watching them. The captain told the team what the steps were and the count for the dance, while they showed them. They gave two dance moves at a time and the contestants would repeat it until they felt they had it down. They would keep adding more dance moves and run through it with a count. The whole dance only took the team around 20 minutes to learn. They then added music and ran through it a few times. Until everyone felt like they had it down. After they practiced there dance a few more time, they all got numbers from an assistant helping out. The numbers were a symbol of what order the girl would be trying out in. You could tell some of the girls were getting very nervous at this point. They had to go in front of the captain and a few other girls and perform the dance they just learned. They were judged on how well they could dance and how well they memorized the dance. Most of the contestant did absolutely awesome and others did just alright in my eyes.
They ended their tryout after getting through all contestants that night. Everyone packed up their bags and put their shoes on, then the group moved by the door and sat down for a final talk by the captain of the Dance Company. She said she was very impressed by all the dancers there. And she was so grateful for how many people showed up to their tryout. She said that it will be a very tough decision in who they will pick this year to be on their team. The last thing she said was that they’re going to need a couple hours to think about who their going to pick, and then they will post it outside the Martindale gym at 10 o’clock that night.
The members trying out for the Dance Company were all dancers previous to college. Most of their backgrounds have a long history of dancing. Many started under the age of 5 and danced continuously, most of them were dancers on a competition team, and almost all of them danced on their high school teams. The dance culture has a long-term orientation because they are dedicated to perfecting their choreography and patient with how time-consuming that can be. The Dance Company captain is a after grad and she is not much older than some of the girls on the team. This makes for a comfortable environment, which brings the group closer together. Their relationship is consistent with having a low power distance culture because the dancers act upon their own responsibilities (dancing) and the