Dancing for a Diploma by Lucy Holmen

Long Beach Poly has a long history in athletics and a wide selection of sports for students to choose from. To graduate, each student needs at least 2 years of participation in a sport or physical education. A lot of these sports are well known, but there are a few sports here at Poly that are not recognized by a large portion of the student body in the sense that you can receive P.E credits for them. The Long Beach Poly dance team is one sport that falls into the “gray area” category of being a sport/club/extracurricular. The sport of dance is a great way for anyone can receive P.E credit, which may not be known to a lot of students, especially new ones.

The dance program is run by coach Luis Lira, and tryouts start at the beginning of the school year. To gather some more information about what actually happens within the dance program, I spoke to sophomore dancer Samantha Foster. When asked about her favorite part of being on the team, she spoke highly of the captains and how the overall community was extremely welcoming. As a younger member of the team, Foster also added that no matter what skill level you are starting at, you can join the dance program, as it is a great learning environment.

In the dance program, dancers start conditioning for dance within the first week of school starting. Every dancer participates in a jazz dance and learns the choreography. Depending on technicality during rehearsal, dancers are graded. Hip hop and contemporary dances are up for individual tryout. Lastly, solo dances can be given out to chosen dancers. Once the choreography for these dances is completed in practice, they are tweaked for synchronization and looks. The next step is dance shows and other performances. There is a show on November 20, with more performances to follow this school year.

To make it clear about the confusion regarding the dance program and dance clubs, while there are clubs that dance, and some participate in the dance program, the dancers in these clubs are not receiving credits for their participation. The only ways to receive P.E credits through dancing are by being in the dance class or team. Since most people I speak to are not aware that dance is a sport, I asked Foster why she thinks that so many students do not know that they can receive credits for it. In response, she pointed out the lack of advertising and how Dance Team is not specifically listed as a sport anywhere. All of this confusion can make it hard for incoming freshmen to know when and where dance tryouts are, and what the team really is.

For a second opinion from someone on the Dance team, I spoke to Freshman Shanti Alimahomed-Wilson. Since she recently joined the program as a freshman, she shared some of the same thoughts as Foster. To start, her favorite part of being on the Dance team is the friendships she has made this year, and her welcoming older peers. Wilson found the team initially through the official Instagram, @lbpdance. As the account lacks details, Wilson emailed former Dance Teacher, Ms. Negrete for more information about the program, and how she could audition. When asked about publicity, Wilson suggested that dance could be promoted on the general Poly Jackrabbits account for more students to see. Lastly, she proposed that dance have a booth at the Freshman Sport Orientation as she stated that it confused many Freshmen.

The key takeaways that come from speaking to Foster and Wilson are that Dance is a sport for anyone to gain P.E credits from, and that it needs to be publicized so more students are aware of this opportunity. Tickets to Dance shows can be bought through dancers or at the shows. For any further information, see @lbpdance on Instagram.