When the BSM Dance Team takes the floor, they hope audiences will see a beautifully choreographed and skillfully danced work of art. To accomplish this task, coaches choose a team of dancers to design new choreography. 

Coming up with the choreography is the responsibility of the chosen team of dancers. They are to create a dance that goes with the song(s) that the coaches pick. “There are sometimes themes for dances so that affects what songs are chosen. The songs vary for each dance season,” senior captain Lauren Hawkinson said. 

In the process of making new choreography, there are different techniques that make it a smooth process. They first listen to the music they are given to work with and listen for instrumentals. The team pairs dance moves with these key parts in the songs. The selected team also watches footage from past dances to get inspiration. “We will sometimes look at past dances to get ideas for new choreography,” Hawkinson said. 

Learning choreography is something that doesn’t come easy to some people, but the BSM Dance Team attempts to make learning choreography fun and productive. Timeliness is key in learning new dances. The coaches chime in every once in a while to change-up some things in the dance. “It takes a couple of days to really get the dance down, but a week to make it the best possible quality,” Hawkinson said. 

Teams of any sort deal with set-backs and difficulty when learning new things. There is a wide variety of ages and skills on the dance team. This can make things difficult at times. The team that is chosen to come up with choreography, the coaches and the captains have to decide what role each dancer is going to play in dances. “The hardest part about creating new choreography is incorporating everyone’s skills into the dances. We make sure everyone is capable of the part they are given,” Hawkinson said. 

The coaches on the BSM dance have a very significant role on the team. Coming from the University of Minnesota Dance Team, they have an impressive dance background. Connections the coaches have made in the past with former dance teammates have benefited the BSM girls dance team. Guests come into work with the girls and give them ideas for choreography. “All three of the coaches were on the University of Minnesota dance team, so they sometimes bring in dancers they danced with which is really cool,” Hawkinson said.