This year was supposed to be a huge come back for the Huntley Red Raiders Varsity Dance Team, but new rules and regulations with IHSA seem to be putting our team’s dreams to a halt.
Illinois finally stated that dance was going to be recognized as an official sport and the girls felt on top of the world now that their hard work was finally paying off. Unfortunately, it came with some set backs.
The team was used to starting their routines early and getting prepared, but now they aren’t allowed to practice until October; which cuts a whole month of practice. Also, instead of being able to bring two routines to the state competition, they are only allowed to bring one. They were so used to TDI, and now that a majority of their competitions have to be IHSA, the team isn’t sure what to expect.
The major problem with IHSA however, is the judging. At the first competition, they had taken away dance categories. This meant that a ballet-like routine would be judged the same way as a hip-hop routine. When they got their score sheets back, comments like “good athlete ratio” and “pretty twirls” were written by the judges who aren’t even dancers and instructors. This is IHSA’s first year of trying the system and many coaches in the state have complained about the unfair scoring.
“We just got unlucky and got caught in the change,” said junior Deni Alvarez. “Because of the restrictions on the number of competitions, we can’t do TDI anymore. We’re all upset about that.”
The winner of IHSA was Maine South and their coach was furious. Even though they won, they understood how the unfair judging affected the rest of the teams competing. Categories are very important in any sport and no two categories should be judged the same.
“At track state, would you judge shot put against the 100 meter dash? Or high jump against the 400? No. That’s how we are, there’s different types of dance and IHSA thinks they can judge them all the same,” said Alvarez.
IHSA’s system goes for both varsity and JV, but it mainly affects varsity since JV doesn’t have a state championship like they do with TDI.