On Thursday April 19 Park University’s dance team, the Crimson Dancers, had their spring showcase. The Crimson Dancers began three years ago when Park’s cheer team fell apart. The team performs mostly at Park basketball games and have been asked to perform at community events around campus and the Parkville community.

The opening number of the show was a pom dance routine to the song Where Them Girls At performed by Allison Davidson, Emily Hogan, Gabby Bretz, Joni Nelson, Jocelyn Clayton, Kiara DeVine, Neek Brown and Tiona Cain. Pom dance routines require dancers to use pom-poms as a prop for their dance.

The next routine was a solo clog routine by Clayton to the song Rock This Town. Clogging (to those of us who don’t know any better) is very similar to tap dancing. It’s a very sound centered style of dance that uses shoes with metal on the bottom of the toe and heel.

Next was a jazz routine to the song Move, performed by the same group of girls as the opening pom routine.

The second solo of the night was a hip-hop dance by Brown to the song “Mask Off”. Brown wore a mask over her face for majority of the dance. After she tossed her mask off, Brown made the crowd scream and cheer when she added one of the latest dance crazes “shoot” to the end of her routine.

Following Brown’s solo, Abby Jeans and Bretz performed a beautiful contemporary duet to the song River. The duo perfectly mirrored each other for majority of the routine. At one point the two-leaped high, hand in hand.

After that the large group from the opening number performed a contemporary dance to the song Helium.

Hogan and Cain then performed a jazz duet to the song “No Excuses”. The two each got a moment alone at the beginning to show off their skills before they both came together for the rest of the song.

Next the large group dance to the song Pretty Girls in a hip-hop routine choreographed by Brown. The girls were dressed in all black with colorful plaid shirts wrapped around their waists. Brown got the crowds energy up yet again when she went to the ground in a split with the other girls dancing behind her.

After the group hip-hop routine, Jeans, the founder of the Crimson Dancers, got to show off her skill in a beautiful contemporary solo to the song “In My Blood”. She spun and leaped her way into the heart of the crowd with a powerful and moving routine.

Finally, the group ended the showcase with another pom routine to the song “All My Ladies”. The girls were dressed in their bright red sequin tops with white pom-poms in hand. They ended the dance with the most iconic part of the style of Pom, high kicks.

If you love to dance and want to try out for the Crimson Dancers next year, look out for information about tryouts early next fall.