Audition Workout Tracker!
Read below AND watch the video above.
This year we introduced something new. In collaboration with our Grand Champion Sponsors YXE Fitness & the Saskatchewan Dance Project, all those auditioning will be required to submit a workout tracker.
Let us preface this by saying this IS NOT A BODY IMAGE thing. We don’t care what you look like as long as you can execute the dance to the calibre we need. This is a tool of personal accountability and asynchronous requirement to audition.
This was introduced because of three reasons, the first being, as your dancer body gets older, things that you could easily do without warming up, tend to not come quite as easily once you hit 18+. Which is completely fine, it just means you have to put the work in to maintain your skills.
The next reason is generally dancers coming form a studio are used to dancing 3+ days a week for 3+ hours at a time but university life is far too demanding for us to expect that of you. You have part time jobs, homework, midterms, family, social lives and classes at all times of the day. This gives you the flexibility to put in the work, when it works best for you.
The third reason being, the dreaded C word, COVID. This past year and half has had an impact on all of us. Maybe you didn’t get to dance as much as you had hoped, maybe you didn’t get to dance at all, maybe you just weren’t as active as you normally were. This is to be used as opportunity to ensure you are dancing at the top of your game come auditions.
As things are starting to open up and the hope of a normal competition season is promising. We need to have dancers that are ready to dance at that elite caliber come the fall so we can just jump right in and get our season going.
SO, welcome to your new workout tracker. You will receive this via email after you send in your audition application. It has instructions on the first page and then 3 calendar months; June, July & August. (Note: The tentative audition date is on the calendar. Once it is confirmed, you will be notified via email.)
You are required to put 3 things on the day you worked out; What type of workout, how long and what your focus was.
Types of workouts:
There are 4 types of workouts you can do; Stretch, skills training, strength training and cardio.
Stretch:
This is intended to increase your flexibility. WARM UP FIRST, meaning HEART RATE UP then safely push yourself. If you have all the flexibility in the world, make sure you also have the STRENGTH to back it up.
Skills Training:
This is intended to be drills or skill specific strengthening or skills practice. We understand this is different for each style. While you can work on jumps and turns and kicks in jazz and pom, for street dance maybe you can expand your range in different styles of street dance or work on a style you’ve struggled with in the past.
If you are practicing skills that you struggle with, DON’T PRACTICE YOUR MISTAKES. If hasn’t been working for you, you have to try something else. Drilling the same mistake over and over is not helpful to you.
You can find a lot of skill strengthening type drills on Tiktok, Instagram, and YouTube. That being said, use your head. If it doesn’t feel right or just looks dangerous, QUIT and do something else. The internet is a great place to learn things but obviously not everything is necessarily a good thing.
Strength Training:
This is traditional workouts. Whatever that looks like for you. Maybe HIIT workouts, pilates, weights etc. We would encourage you to think of how each movement can be strengthening your dancing.
Cardio:
This is whatever it looks like for you. Get your heart rate up! We would encourage you to not only have “long distance” stamina but also short interval stamina to really be able to perform to your fullest for 2+ minutes straight.
Rest days:
Obviously take rest days. Your body needs to recoup and heal. We would encourage you to be getting active more days in the week than you are not. It’s summer! You have to have some fun!
REMEMBER to put your name, which team or teams you’re auditioning for and what date you applied on the bottom right corner of your calendar. If you apply June 1st, you will need to hand the June, July and August calendars in at auditions. If you apply to audition in August, just hand in the august calendar when you come to auditions.
Grab a friend or friends (safely) and make this something fun! Help each other out and work together!
There will be a collection of audition requirements for each team that will be released in the coming months. This workout tracker is a great way to work on them.
The wonderful thing about dance is there is always more to achieve and more room to grow. We are looking for dancers who are willing to try and work on new things. Dancers who are willing to continually grow. If you’ve got something down pat, find a way to make it harder! If there is something that is not your strong suit, work on it! Always be willing to learn and be willing to put the work into learn.
Good luck!