UCCS Dance Club adapts passion to fundraising

While the Rec Center is winding down on a Thursday evening, the UCCS Dance Club is just beginning to warm up for its second weekly rehearsal.

Members stretch while Flo Rida's "Good Feeling" streams from the aerobic room speakers, and they discuss registering for Relay for Life.

Although they will participate in the event, the club's 16 members have also started their own fundraiser: selling $15 T-shirts to raise money for a dancer's mother who has cancer.

Captain Alyssa Markle, a business major, and Co-captain Britney Nunes, a health science major, both wear the shirts as they practice routines; they have "DTF" printed on the front and "Dance Team Fan" on the back.

Markle said the club officers collectively decided to sell the shirts, which may be purchased by emailing her at amarkle@uccs.edu.

"We want to do Relay for Life as well as raise money for this family because it is important to remember we aren't all as fortunate with our health and in life," she said. "But those of us who are in a place to help, should."

Markle and Nunes agreed the club enjoys a family atmosphere, which is evidenced in how the girls talk and laugh among one another between routines. This is a contrast to last year, which Nunes notes was "a lot less friendly."

They described the members as an "awesome group of girls" who hang out together outside of class and rehearsals.

Both juniors, Markle and Nunes danced in studios together before they joined the UCCS Dance Club last year.

Markle and Nunes respectively teach at Turning Pointe Dance and the Springs City Ballet, experience they adapt to club rehearsals and members with varying dance experience.

The club prefers jazz style techniques and dances to up-tempo songs such as Alexandra Stan's "Mr. Saxobeat" and "Dirty Dancer" by Enrique Iglesias.

While Nunes said the club didn't have a favorite music genre, she added, "I think this year we're just trying to find stuff that occurs mainstream."

To join the UCCS Dance Club, students must demonstrate their skills during an all-day audition held every September.

Markle said no new dancers are being accepted at this time because of how far along the team has already progressed with its routines.

However, students interested in joining are welcome to be spectators until they have an opportunity to participate in the next round of auditions.

The UCCS Dance Club performed at Blackout Night on Feb. 4, and its next performance is scheduled for Feb. 25, when the UCCS men's and women's basketball teams will play Colorado School of Mines.

"I think the one on Feb. 25, we want to incorporate a lot more style," she said, adding it is "a lot harder" for the club to learn.

As the club practiced and modified moves late into the night, each dancer appeared willing to embrace the challenge.