Every sports team needs a spirit squad to turn up the heat on their home turf, and the Cougars get additional energy from one of the best dance teams in the nation. As the ten-time winners of the National College Dance Championship, the Cougarettes know how to get the home crowd going. When they hold their annual audition, participants have a chance to showcase their best moves in front of critical judges’ eyes.
“We’re looking for girls that have really strong turns, beautiful leaps, long lines, that have a stage presence that can really…captivate the audience,” Jodi Maxfield, artistic director of the Cougarettes said.
As cruel as any competition, elimination sent some dancers home earlier than they had hoped, but they were able to acknowledge the expectations of a top-class program, and improve for the future.
“It was an awesome learning experience,” dancer Ashley Howe said. “Regardless of whether I made it or not, I had a chance to…participate in this and I think that it just makes me stronger and makes me work harder for next year.”
As an additional requirement this year, dancers who made it to the final round of auditions had to present their own combinations of advanced level turns. This gave the judges a better opportunity to assess individual creativity and precision from each candidate.
“I think we’re going to have an incredible team,” Maxfield said. “We’ve had a good team every year for a lot of years, but wait until you see the team that comes out this year. There are some really amazing dancers.”
The Cougarettes won the National Hip Hop Championships in both of the last 2 years, but they’re also adept in several other dance genres. They took home the grand prize in the 2012 New Prague Dance Festival in the Czech Republic.
