Mt. A dance team have traditional homecoming performance cancelled

The last minute cancellation of the Mt.A dance teams performance

 

The Mt. A Dance Team, having performed for over the past 10 years at local homecoming events, had their streak end this year due to an unexpected presentation held by the University. The slot usually given to the dance team was replaced by the number retirement of Mt. A football alumni jersey numbers. In an emailed statement provided to The Argosy, the Mt. A athletics department said in their statement “the halftime schedule was adjusted to accommodate a special presentation, but this change was not clearly communicated to all stakeholders.” 

While the dance team was not aware their spot was filled due to the special presentation, other societies were approached to fill a spot during halftime. Mt. A Game Day Cheer executive Alena Grandy, said the athletic department was asked about the length of their performance. “Our whole exec was confused, so we left the email for a couple days, and then we received a second email saying there was no longer a time limit, and we could dance for as long as we wanted just to let them know to which we responded,” said Grandy. 

 

Although practices were held as usual and the team was in attendance at the game, the dancers had no idea they would not be performing and rehearsed as usual. Larissa Varghese from the dance team, said they practiced for ten hours that week, practicing two hours for five consecutive days. In addition to the practice during the week, Marissa Emberly, a fourth-year student on the dance team, said the team “had a practice Saturday at 7 a.m. to practice on the field that [was] about two hours.” 

 

The team did not find out about their cancellation until right before they were scheduled to perform. Emberly said, “some sort of event coordinator came up to us. He saw us stretching and getting ready for the halftime and he came up to us and he goes, ‘Who’s the dance captain? I need to talk to her.’” says Emberly. The cancellation of the performance caused distress for families and friends of the dance team who came to support. People in the stands who came to watch the dance team starting leaving in waves, Varghese said, “we were shocked at first cause we dance at Homecoming every year, so you’d assume that we’d go this year as well, some of us were crying, some were just angry.” For some this would be their last halftime performance, some their first, and some were only a part of the team to perform at halftime. Emberly said “this situation was just very eye-opening because I feel like a lot of the time dancers aren’t seen as athletes and they were just looking right over us.” 

 

The Mt. A athletic department and alumni panel have said they “take full accountability for not properly communicating with [the dance team]. We will work hard to understand where this went wrong and to ensure something like this does not happen again.” Despite the dance team not being able to perform at Homecoming, they will most likely perform at other halftimes through the year. Additionally, the Mt. A community can come out to support them in either their next performance or end of year recital.