When Katie Yekin and Caitlin Karram met their freshman year, both girls knew they wanted to continue practicing dance, as each had an extensive background in the art form.
The two friends decided to take matters into their own hands and create a dance team where they could make their own rules and lead the practices themselves.
Three years later, that dream is a reality as special education senior Yekin and education senior Karram have establishing a team of 12 for their Mix It Up! Dance Club.
“We are essentially a dance club for girls who want to dance without the competitive edge,” Yekin said. “We don’t compete. We just perform for fun and essentially dance for fun.”
Having a good time while learning new things seems to be the club’s motto. During tryouts, which occur at the beginning of each fall and spring semester, they welcome everyone — even those who have never set foot on a dance floor.
It’s the idea of accepting almost everyone into their group that persuaded many of the members, including biology senior Abby Crampton, to join.
“I just ended up really liking it. I like how we are a low-time commitment club,” Crampton said. “I still get to dance, and I don’t know what I would do if I had to stop.”
To determine which dances they best fit into, a second tryout is held in the spring where Karram and Yekin reassess each member’s skill and place them accordingly.
Ultimately, once placed in a group, the team members have the opportunity to choose which group routines they would like to perform in addition to performing smaller group dances, such as duets.
“My favorite part is probably the point when you choreograph the team and it’s completely finished,” Yekin said. “When you spend so much time choreographing a piece and thinking about how it’s going to work and then watching it all happen and it looking sort of like you wanted it to, is really cool.”
The club practices Mondays and Thursdays each week 7-9 p.m. in 204 Natural Science Building.
It’s during these four hours a week the club practices nailing the choreography for upcoming performances.
“This year, we are actually looking into performing at a few philanthropy events,” Yekin said. “We are looking at performing at Relay for Life and Dance Marathon. Also, at the end of every year we have a recital where we do all the routines that we worked on all year.”
Yekin said one of the things that makes Mix It Up! special is what the new members can bring to the group, such as new tricks.
“It’s very cool to see how all of our different cultures and all of our different studio upbringings or dance team upbringings come together to make one team,” she said.
Psychology freshman Hanhan Xie is one of the few international students in the group and said joining Mix It Up! has helped her make the transition moving from China to America.
“By joining this club I can meet more American friends, and I can learn more about the American culture,” Xie said. “I have improved my dance skill and my English.”
Currently, it’s $70 to join the dance club the first year, but then every year thereafter the cost is reduced to $40.
“We have all become like a really cool and cohesive group,” Yekin said. “For people (who) haven’t danced, we would like them to become dancers and like dancing and be in love with it.”
