As Diamond Bar High School Dance Company prepares to freestyle through their upcoming season, they have organized several events to both prepare for the season and collaborate together as a team. 

Serving as a fundraiser for Dance Company, the event allows for the members of Dance Company to interact with and recruit kids aged 5-13 from various local dance studios. Specifically, the team hosts a few activities teaching choreography, such as choreography to a song from the movie Trolls. After that, the camp participants will perform what they learned at the camp alongside Dance Company at their kickoff showcase. 

“[A] majority of the event was organized by the leader group, including myself, within the team, but couldn’t have been done without our director Mrs. Riley, and our amazing dance company parents,” senior Dance Company president Malia Avery said. “We reached out to numerous studios and spread the word of the youth camp with friends and family, and by social media as well.”

According to Avery, organizing the event was not as hard as anticipated. 

“We did it smoothly because we have a good leader and director,” senior secretary Derick Popeney said “But I think it was a pretty tough event to organize because it’s like 50 plus little kids you have to take care of all at once and you need to make sure you have the right amount of people to actually watch over these kids.”

Despite the dance camp going extremely smoothly for Dance Company, some parts of the camp could be improved, such as its length. A few members of Dance Company believe that the participants could benefit from an extended camp. 

“One thing that would make it better … is if it was stretched for a longer period of time than one day because what we do is we teach the kids one day and then have them perform the next day,” Popeney said. “But if we really wanted to get these kids excited about dance we could teach for a longer period of time.”

Ultimately, the dance camp was a success for Dance Company, as the leaders hoped that everyone who participated in the event enjoyed their time and were satisfied with their experience. 

“I want everyone to have fun, especially the little ones, and I hope that they enjoy dancing and getting to know our team,” Avery said. “Some youth campers are even incoming freshmen, so hopefully we can recruit some new members as well for next year.”