Seven-time national champions, the WS Dance Team was expected to add number eight to their winning streak this year, but there was a bump in the road.
WSDT chose not to attend Nationals this year because of new music regulations that were enforced on the competition. The National Dance Association [NDA] is a part of a company called Varsity, which was bought by a higher up company that changed the music regulations.
“[The NDA] changed their music policy so that you couldn’t mix songs together and you couldn’t really use original work,” said senior captain Natalie Presnell. “So we felt like we couldn’t really do what we like to do and we always use sound effects and try to project what you hear to what you see, so we felt like it wouldn’t be the same.”
The new regulations require teams to only use songs that were bought on iTunes or to pay approximately $1,500 to mix two songs together.
“We just felt that we couldn’t really do what we do and be ourselves, since our style is so different from other teams that compete at NDA it just wouldn’t feel real or authentic,” said junior Millena Yohannes.
WSDT has been looking at this unfortunate event as a positive thing that helped them grow as a team.

“It’s been an amazing building year for the team to improve our technique and work on non-competition projects,” said WSDT coach Tara Perez. “The team is such a family and it was nice to focus on ourselves and not on other teams and what they were planning.”
The team attended other dance events during their season to compensate for their time away from the national competition.
“Because of [not being able to attend Nationals], we were able to go to more dance conventions, which gave us the opportunity to grow as dancers and become closer [as a team],” said junior Unda Dittaboot.
Having a year away from Nationals may not have added any numbers to their national record, but it did allow them to focus on the “fun” aspect of the sport.
“It was really upsetting obviously because I really wanted to go back but at the same time I respect what my coaches decided to do and I think it was a good decision on their part because we don’t want to dance for the money; we want to dance for fun,” said Dittaboot.
The Dance Team still has their major fan base all over the world sending supportive tweets and messages.

“It might be sad that we broke our streak, but honestly I think that it was for the better and it will open up great opportunities for us next year,” said sophomore Emma Lapini.