Why Dancers Quit Dance Teams | Coaching, Rapport & Retention (HBCU Danceline & High School) | Ep 4

Why dancers quit dance teams and how coaches can improve team retention, leadership, and dance program organization.

In Episode 4 of the Major Business Podcast, veteran dance coach Chance Scott-Bennett powerful insight from more than 14 years of coaching experience and over a decade leading the Albany State Golden Passionettes. Coach Chance discusses how rapport, trust, and leadership play a major role in keeping dancers committed to a program.

This conversation explores how successful coaches build strong dance team culture, organize their programs effectively, and develop systems that support dancers from auditions through summer training, football season, and basketball season.

If you're a dance coach, majorette coach, band director, or danceline leader, this episode is a masterclass in dance team leadership, management, and retention.

In this episode we discuss:

• Why rapport between coaches and dancers is essential for retention
• How to build trust with dancers, parents, and band directors
• Coaching differences between high school dance teams and HBCU dancelines
• Why male coaches are becoming more common in majorette and danceline programs
• How professionalism and leadership reduce team drama and conflict
• How to organize a dance team from auditions through the full season
• Planning for summer training, football season performances, and basketball season routines

Coach Chance also shares how he successfully manages multiple teams while maintaining strong relationships with dancers, parents, and administrators; an approach that has helped him build long-lasting, respected programs!

Whether you coach majorette, hip hop, auxiliary, HBCU or traditional dance teams, this episode offers practical strategies for improving dance team structure, leadership, and dancer retention.

Guest:
Chance Scott-Bennett
Coach – Albany State Golden Passionettes
Coach – Creekside High School Golden Essence

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Let me ask you again to get in the split and see what happened. Oh and you were showing us how to be a paperclip using crumping. I wish they were chopped in the throat. Yeah, like the lampposts, and they were just like they need to sit down and listen.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

Welcome to the Major Business Podcast. I'm your host, Vershawn Lee. Here we discuss all things: auxiliary dance, everything from structure to strategy, training, leadership, performance. And yeah, we're gonna go ahead and get into it. We have a special guest today. Y'all ain't gonna believe it. I'm gonna go ahead and read a little bit about him. Basically, our guest today is a graduate of the unsinkable Albany State University. Um, he's a dance teacher at Creekside High School, director and choreographer of the CHS, which is the Creekside High School Essence, and the Albany State Golden Passionettes. All right, are y'all ready? All right, so we're gonna go ahead and bring him in the room. What's up, what's up? What's up, Jeez? Hey, hey, how y'all doing? All right, so listen, all right. So go ahead and get it, get us, get us going from like how you got started. I do know, I mean, you know, we been knowing each other for a minute, but I really don't know the actual whole story as to how you even started. Um and I mean, first of all, like with the passioness. And this is me assuming that this is that's your first team. So I I don't actually know. So like get a give us a little background.

SPEAKER_03 1:45

Okay, okay. Well, we're gonna take it back, back, way back.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Back, back, way back.

SPEAKER_03 1:51

Uh, I started cheering at uh well, I started cheering in high school and I got to Albany State, and I started cheering my sophomore year. And then when I finished cheering, I was just like, I need something to do. Like, ugh. So I did have a passion for dance. My uh one of my close friends was the current choreographer for the Albany State Golden Passionates, and then uh my next friend became the choreographer for the passionates, and I was just like, I think this is what I want to do. So uh there were some high schools in the area. I was just like, I think I want to start smaller and then maybe build my way up, whatever the case is. So I went to Albinny High School and talked to their coordinator, and I became their choreographer in 2012, and then in 2014, the opportunity came from the band director, Mr. Michael DeQueer, rest in peace, and uh Lynn DeQueer, the advisor at the time that asked me to come on with the girls, and I've been rocking with them since 2014, and then I moved to Atlanta in 2016. I was still coaching, going back and forth, and then I was like, dang, I miss high school. Like that progression of seeing the the young minds, not knowing, knowing what to do, how to, you know, a lot of times never wore heels, never wore hair, like makeup, that process of seeing them grow. I was like, I missed that. Uh so I went into I had the opportunity to get on at Creekside in 2020. So I've been doing both of those since since then.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Okay, but look, before you got to Creekside, you was teaching weren't you teaching out of school?

SPEAKER_03 3:40

Yes, uh so before I went to Creekside, I was my first high school when I moved to Atlanta was Mount Zion.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

But like what what were you teaching? What subject?

SPEAKER_03 3:50

Um biology, biology and environmental science.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

Oh, you smart. Oh yeah, no, I love smart. But now you're teaching dance at Creekside.

SPEAKER_03 4:04

Yes, I teach dance and an environmental science class.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Oh, they had to slide that in on you though.

SPEAKER_03 4:10

Yeah, like that literally just happened like three weeks ago. Oh they was like, hey, we need, and I'm just like, and they like, and I slide.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

Oh, okay, because we can do that. We yeah, yeah, yeah. You you slide me a little something, I got you. No problem. Okay, so how, because I'm sure everybody is wondering how the hell you go back and forth with the teams. Like, how are you managing two teams? And we're talking about not just the team itself, we're talking about two sets of ladies. Huh? How you do that?

SPEAKER_03 4:47

Y'all see that right here?

SPEAKER_00 4:49

Yeah. Baby.

SPEAKER_03 4:53

All right, so uh it's a year-round situation, especially with Creekside. They have football season, competition season, and then the spring martian band season. So they literally go year-round versus Passionettes. Now, starting last year, it's kind of sort of year-round, but a little bit more of a break. Uh, the band director, well, they asked the band director to play at some of the basketball games for Albany State as well. So after the football season, we do basketball season. So with them, I get a small break after February, small break before we do auditions in April. And then Golden Essence, like I said, we go literally year-round. So then I'm starting Golden Essence. We start auditions are in March. They have practice the very next week because we have to start for spring band season with all the ballot of bands and all that stuff. So they literally make the team start practice. So I'm going from them with them from March to February. And then over the summer, I will um when did I start this? Maybe like 2018, 19. I started doing uh band camp or R camp during the summer, and I said, I'm gonna put both of them together. So it was 2010. Actually, no, it was later, like 2021-ish. I do them both at the same time in the summer, so that way I'm like doing captain training, so I'm seeing how this captain handled the squad while I'm over here, seeing how this captain handles the squad while I'm over there, and going back and forth with that. So it's kind of like it's still hectic, but it's easier for me to be able to manage time while I'm having them both in the same place, versus being here in Albany this week and then this week I'm over here because you know.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

Okay, so if they're all together, all together, we're all together in Atlanta, all together in Albany, or somewhere else.

SPEAKER_03 7:09

For the most part, it's in Atlanta, or of course it's in Atlanta, um, because of the high school. But for the most part, for passionates, we get majority of the ladies coming from Georgia. So it's easier for them to come to Atlanta than going to Albany, anyways. Uh, this was the first year that we've had coastal passionates on the team. Uh, so we had one, um she made it from California, one from New Orleans, and then one in Florida. So that was kind of a struggle within itself, but we made it work and did what it needed to do. So I try to get the majority of the stuff done in the summer, like the structural, getting the style down, um, making sure they understand my pocket as a choreographer so that way when I am sending choreo, it they can pick it up like this because we have to move very quickly. So the summer is a lot of intense training.

SPEAKER_00 8:09

Okay, so let me run it back now because I had to ask that because I was curious. But now I'm trying to figure out timing-wise, okay, so you're with the high school, when when do you actually like coach? Because I know you go to the to the passionate games, but like do you coach them virtually? Like in terms of like, or they learn everything in the summertime and they just kind of do it themselves during the year.

SPEAKER_03 8:33

So it's a mix of summer everything, to be perfectly honest. Uh, if I'm if I go down there, uh so normal week, let's just start with Monday. So I'm with Priestide Monday through Friday. We have practice Monday through Thursday game on Friday. Then I'm leaving either after the game on Friday, or I'm waking up early in the morning to go down on Saturday. We do the Albany State game, and then they'll have if we're doing a new field show, then they're doing game on Saturday, practice on Sunday. And I'm like drilling the next routine, the next interest, any new stands that pop in my mind. We're doing that on Sunday, and I go back home so I can make it to work on Monday, and then it's a repeat.

SPEAKER_00 9:21

Damn. Well, I mean, uh, you're doing it all right because the girls look great, and and I guess everybody confused as to how in the hell some people can't get one team together. Okay, you got two teams, they got it all together.

SPEAKER_03 9:40

And we lost. Yeah, it's it's it's a lot. Um, football season. I tell everybody, I can't. Do you want to I can't? Can you I can't. So it's uh it takes a lot of my time, uh, but it's something that I love to do. Uh a lot of people don't know that Albinny is three hours from where I live. So I'm like going three hours one way, three hours the next way. So I have to like plan everything. And it was a little bit harder. So I'm like, I just left. I was vice president of internal affairs for my organization, Dutch Fidel Dance Attorney Incorporated. So I'm literally in practices or in meetings and conference calls, and I'm just like, yeah, so we're gonna do X, Y, and Z. And it's Bop Ma on two, and da da da da and da da da no, split, roll, get up. Yeah, I'm sorry. No, not you. So it's sometimes it that part was a a lie, and then now I'm currently the president of my chapter. So saying that to say I have to plan that three-hour drive in my outside of Passioness and go to essence day as well. So it can be a lot, but I'm I'm managing.

SPEAKER_00 10:59

You are managing well. Listen, I I admire all the things because I mean, we all not able, okay? We are not able. So, real quick, I do want to um talk about. I know what you have in both teams, I think it's very important to discuss um rapport because you know, like I said, it's it's not just teens. We're talking about actual like real people, actual kids, like people have real personalities, and then we still have to develop these. These are the children, and we still gotta develop children. You understand all of these things and very well, obviously, because I mean, I can't say that it's no bickering because I don't know what the children are doing, but I do know in order for you to be doing all of this, like everything must be structured somehow. So, how are you maintaining like a rapport with the teams individually? And like, how do you how do you breed them that way?

SPEAKER_03 12:02

So, as far as my high school team, like I treat them pretty much the same way as I treat golden passionates. So when I did teach, when I first started, when I uh in 2012 at Albany High, uh I had a girl, my first captain, she auditioned for Clark Atlanta. She made the team and she was there and she was talking to me, you know, it's harder, you're learning a new style, whatever the case is. And then the next year I had two girls, they auditioned for that team, they made it and they quit. And I'm just like, y'all quit band camp? Like what? This is so embarrassing. Like, what and in my mind, I was like, this is my fault. Like, I did not structure them, I did not prepare them for the harder part of what it takes to be on a collegiate team. So then that moment, I was just like, from now on, I'm going to train my high school team the exact same way as I train my college team. So then it's not as much of a culture shock when they get on the other side and I'm not getting a call. Yeah, coach, I had to quit. I'm like, these people know me. Like what you doing? They're gonna call me. That's embarrassing. So with that, they I let them know, and the parents know. Once they make the team, I have the whole meeting with the parents on the high school level. I have a meeting with the parents, I let them know, like, hey, I'm a college coach, this is my level of expectations. I'm going to deal with them more than I'm going to deal with you. So if I have issues or problems or whatever the case is, I want them to be able to figure it out. So they're used to this when they get on the other side. The tough love and the choice words that I give on one side, I give to the other side. And I'm like, y'all have to know this. And they're ironically, the high school girls are more receptive than the collegiate girls, which is crazy to me. But yeah, yeah, so it's it's very much a learning process. And then I'm uh on the rapport side, like I try to separate practice and outside of practice. So like um, I'm joking, even in practice. Like, I'm I love a good joke. I like people making people laugh, but they know when it's time for business and I don't say something three times, probably even depending on the moment or how close to the game we are, I don't repeat it. It's not gonna come out just as nice as I said it the first time. Okay so they know how to differentiate chance funny guy and chance about the business guy. So it and for some people it can be a lot, especially on the collegiate level, because it's so much like I'm uh honestly, I feel bad for the Golden Passionates every single year because it's so much that they have to learn. It's a million freaking stands.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

Well, you say for the passionates. Yes, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_03 15:10

Yeah, I feel bad for them because it's a million stands, and every year it's more. And I have a personal I'm gonna let y'all know my little secret. So during summer practice, we have three practice weeks, we have two practices a day. Okay, my goal is to make a new stand every single practice. So that's two stands a day, five days a week, times three. That's just summer.

SPEAKER_00 15:43

Okay, wait, and the girls are learning the same things.

SPEAKER_03 15:47

No.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

So is this two per team?

unknown 15:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:52

Oh Lord.

SPEAKER_03 15:54

So technically, I'm making four stands a day.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

Right.

SPEAKER_03 16:00

Well, no, I'm making three stands a day because the go to passionates practice twice a day during the summer, go to S's only practice one time because I see them longer. So I don't need to because we start again, we start in March, and then Passionettes, I'm not seeing them until that first week in June. So I need to double up and I only do one for them. So yeah. So during the summer, I'm making three stands a day, but passionates learn two stands a day, five days a week, times three. And then when we get into the football season, and I'm just like, okay, yeah, this popped in my mind, or yeah, it's homecoming, so we gotta do this, or oh, it's classic, or oh, we're going to Houston, so we need, you know.

SPEAKER_00 16:41

Or okay, how do you keep track? How do you keep track? If the the book is this extensive, how do how do you know, or you just know all these in your head?

SPEAKER_03 16:52

That's another gag. I only know when it comes to passionates, I only know the choreographer stands before me. Any stand that I make, it leaves my brain. So I truly, honestly, do not know my own stands. I can look at it and say, I don't think that's how I did that. Oh no, that ain't that's not right. Like you're messing that up. I can do that, but to get them when they hit me with the can you show me how I go?

SPEAKER_01 17:23

No, I don't remember.

SPEAKER_03 17:27

So it's on the team. We uh try to name stands, well, we name the stands, uh, and then they will keep a book of the names of those stands, and then it's on them to kind of remember what it is, and then of course, every team you have those, they have those stands that they don't like, and they try to slip them through. And I'm just like, yeah, I ain't seen percolator in a minute, or I ain't never seen one that what you doing?

SPEAKER_00 17:58

Dang.

SPEAKER_03 18:00

Sorry, to go back to your question of the re the rapport, it's just basically like I try to definitely let them know that I'm there for them, and my goal is to see them progress. So even when we have cuts or whatever the case is, like I'll talk with each girl individually on both teams and letting them know like this is my issue, this is my problem, this is what I see, this is how you can fix it. Is there anything that I can do to help you get to this point that I need? Because at the end of the day, this is my stuff. So I can only tell you how it's supposed to go. Your captains, of course, are there to mold you and do whatever, but at the end of the day, they still have to make sure they have their stuff together because they're in the front, like they have the hardest job. So at the end of the day, they still have to get their stuff together.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

But don't you have like a um, because I remember seeing one time they traveled to Florida or something, y'all do some type of um like retreat or something? Was that a one-time thing, or you do that every year?

SPEAKER_03 19:04

Every year. Well, this was the first year that we didn't do it, but and that was more so of uh a budgeting issue, like um at the beginning of the season as a non-reveal video, I started off with 14 uh daughter passionates, and I haven't had a team that big since 2016. So I didn't have enough uniforms for every single girl to make it through every single game, and I don't like repeating uniforms in a season, like it's just not happening. I don't care what I gotta do, it's not happening. So I was just like, okay, I have to get more uniforms made of this, I have to get brand new uniforms because we get a certain amount of new uniforms every year, and I'm just like, we can't go nowhere because I have to get this, I gotta get this, I gotta get this, and then we're talking about then we were going to Houston, it was just a lot going on, and then I have that same mentality with Golden Essence. Uh so we do that as well, and then with them, they have this, they love each other, but they have this inner chance beef, and it's like, oh, you did this with the passionate, so why we can't do it? Oh, you did this was golden essence, so why we can't do it or oh da da da da. So I'm like, yeah, nobody's going on a trip. I just and I didn't have the time, it was just a lot. So we didn't do that this year, but it is uh an annual thing. It was something that the captain from 2007, Sabrie Johnson, that was something that she incorporated. When she became captain, they used to do an annual boat trip. And then when I became over the passionates fully, I was just like, they always talked about their boat trips like every year that she was captain. The girls always refer to the boat trip. And I was just like, I want them to have something like that to be able to bond no stands, no, well, I'm lying. They do some stands, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

But you know, when they go to boat places, you ain't even gotta say do it, they naturally just be doing stuff.

SPEAKER_03 21:10

Up doing it, or can you show me how this count's supposed to go? Or I saw this count, can you teach it to me? Or this is that and a third, and then I make little games. So I'm just like, okay, the person, the group that can make the best thing that I like get to eat first, or whatever the case is, whatever the prize is. So yeah, I love that's the highlight of the summer for me, like being able to see them bond and do whatever that it is, and then their highlight is they get to eat my food.

SPEAKER_00 21:36

So are you close enough?

unknown 21:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:39

Oh, or you be cooking. Yeah, I gotta do breakfast, lunch, and then my oh, oh, you be the daddy at the house. Okay, so but go more into like because and I and I'm asking you this because oftentimes when I'm talking to coaches, they don't realize that you can't. Just it this can't just be dance. Like, if they never get the opportunity to meet you as chance, you know, like to meet the actual person, not the coach person, but the actual you would without all of this. Like, if they never get to meet that person, then it's very difficult for them to figure it all out, right? So then it's like, well, I don't know. They're just doing things and you're just saying things, but then there's never really a huge connection made with everybody. There's some kids, you know, they're gonna be in your face anyway. It don't matter. They're gonna make sure they know whatever they want to know. But then the ones who never do that, then it's like, well, then you always wonder, you know. So it's like they don't value a lot of coaches, don't value the rapport part, like actually spending time being intentional about getting to know the kids, them getting to know you, and like actually making that human connection so that they feel safe and they can do or say and and stumble in front of you. You know what I'm saying? So essentially that's so I'm wondering if you can say a little bit more about like what that process is like. Like you what you book a house and then you y'all go, you plan activities, like how long do y'all stay? Like, what is that like for them to say they had this experience, this was a great time, and we're gonna talk about it forever?

SPEAKER_03 23:25

No, no problem. So uh I plan out the weeks for the summer practices so that way I can plan my personal life. But uh, we have three weeks out of the summer. I normally try to do the middle week as the bonding week. So we'll have practice that they'll come on Sunday. We start practice on Monday, and then they'll have that morning practice on Friday. They'll go freshen up and we'll head. It's normally a cabin um that I get uh in North Georgia, somewhere it's easy drive. So we'll uh do that and I'll rent the cabin. We're there from that Friday and check out Sunday. So a real quick trip, but it's something to do, and I try to come up with like games and stuff for them to do. Uh the the grab, I forget it what it's called, but grabbing the cup or the bottle. Like that's always the first game that we do, and then we'll do um things that like games that'll help them in the long run with um dancing and things coming out of their shell. So I'll do like, which I got this from my uh best friend, uh improv. So just write down a certain genre and a random object, and they have to emulate that object in that genre, and everybody has to guess what it is that they're trying to do. So, like, for example, it was like ballet and a banana. So you had to use ballet to portray a banana, but the goal is for you to be able to emote and do those things because I'm very big on performance and facials and things of that nature, and a lot of people don't come from that kind of a background where facials are important, or the correct kind of facials, because it's not a facial, or or just or the tongue, it drives me crazy. So using those kind of things to like stuff that that's fun for them, but in the long run, it's something that you can use. So then when we get into the practice space, and I'm just like, well, I don't understand what you mean by facials. Okay, remember when we did this game and you were showing us how to be a paperclip using crumping? That's what I oh okay, okay. I guess I get it. Okay, okay. So yeah, using those those moments and then just finding things like even when we're in the um the camp trip, like I have my rules and my expectations, but they're very minimum because I want them to have fun. Of course, with the college girls, like you want to, you know, make sure y'all don't bring no lettuce and none of drunk, and then boom. Those are my bigger rules, and I let them like I'll go into the room that I'm staying in and I let them have their time. Or I always try to be in the more secluded area so they feel like they have the house to themselves, and after a certain period of time of re-cooking or played, I've cooked, they eaten, played their game. I'll go in my room and I want them to be able to like have fun, enjoy themselves, get to know each other. I might peek out every now and again just to make sure, you know, everybody's alive, nobody's left. Uh but yeah, like even with the high school, same thing. And I'll come in. Um, like the last trip we did, it was I felt bad. I felt so bad, but it was so funny. Um I ran out of the room and I was just like, yo, somebody just pulled up and they cut their lights off. So they all ran into a room and they were scared. And I went outside and I was like, had like my flashlight and all this. So they were so scared and I felt so bad, but it was so funny.

SPEAKER_00 26:58

And you were just like, it was a prank?

SPEAKER_03 27:01

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 27:02

Oh my god, that would have been it for me. That the trip is over.

SPEAKER_03 27:06

But they was the fact that they was just like they barned it together, and when I bust in the door and told them they had like the lamppost, and they were just like it was so funny, but it was just like a a moment. They still talk about that to this day.

SPEAKER_00 27:23

So yeah. Oh wow. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_03 27:28

So yeah, I but I feel like it's it's like you said, it's very much necessary because they can see like it's not always so much about dance, or there's another side to just being on a team, and I can let my hair down, but I know I have to do the work to be able to let my hair down. And of course, when they're after that cabin trip and they're in the book of like band camp and all that other stuff, they're not thinking about that trip. They're thinking about man, when it's over, I'm ready to go, I'm tired, this is that, and the third. But a lot of the things come full circle to them once they experience like they're in that game and they're doing those things and they can tie everything in. Okay, this is why he said do this, this is why he said do this. This person has my back. I left my tights and I gotta get my makeup done. They ran to my room to go get my tights for me. Things like that, and they just remember, like, okay, I created this bond at this cabin trip.

SPEAKER_00 28:24

And not realizing too, like the closer or the more, and I always say you don't have to be friends. I always tell like groups of ladies that I'm not asking y'all to be friends, I'm just saying be, you know, like comfortable enough around each other to know, like respect each other. Um now, will you be friends? Possibly, right? And and yes, that is my wish, but it you I can't force you to be friends. And so, you know, that's that's my whole thing. Like you can be sisterly and you know, but they're blood-related people that sometimes are like, oh, you know, and everybody's not gonna be perfect. So I like to try to highlight that. But just like the the the closer we are, the better we dance together, and that's the part that the people miss. That if the pe if they know each other well, they'll dance together well. Um, whether whether we best friends or not, if if I know you like that, then I'm we can we can feel each other's energy. Like it's just a different, I feel like it takes the team to a different level. And I oftentimes, like, you know, just so many coaches, they miss the opportunity to create these types of memories. You know what I mean? So I really do. That's why I I you know I told that be I be watching. So when I saw when I started, I said, he got the girls in the house. That's dope. You know, even like down to planning with the parents, like the parents have to be supportive because A, you're a male, you know what I'm saying? So it's like they have to trust you enough to be like, yeah, you can take my child for a couple days and y'all can stay the night in the house, you know, like type of thing. So I really appreciate that, which makes me, which brings me to your parents. Like, they seem to be, I've met them several times when you're away, when they have those weekend, um, like, you know, battle the bands and stuff like that, and you at Albany or with the passionette somewhere. Like, how how do you like how are how did you create the whole thing? Do they have like a a band? Like, I know they have band booster, but do they have like their own booster for the team or like how because it seemed like they just kind of bridged together to support you because they know what you have going on?

SPEAKER_03 30:28

Yeah, so that uh the there is a parent group and uh this year is it this year? Last year, last season, uh the band director created uh Golden Essence liaison, so he wanted uh Golden Essence parents to be a part of the band boosters so that it wouldn't seem like everything the boosters were doing was geared towards just the instrumentalists in the band, but the band it's itself. So uh that space was created, and but even before then, like my parents are very, very, very, very supportive, very, very helpful. And um, I'm very much a self-made machine. Like, I'm gonna try to plan out everything so that nothing needs to be done. Uh, and they started was like seeing that, and they was like, hey, you know, we we know you got this, but we feel like we want to do more. Like, what is it that you can do? And then they was like, Okay, when you're not at the games, we're gonna make sure that this, but I always, always, always, no matter what, even from the band director, like the girls are like so self-trained, like, all you have to do is literally just walk with them, and they got everything. Hold the bags for them with their uniforms, they're gonna handle it and do what they need to do. And that's why, like, that summer practice is very, very important for any team. And I say, like, train them to be what it is you want them to be from every aspect, changing uniforms, the way they sit in the stands, the way they leave the stands, how they go to the restroom, because they're gonna need to go to the restroom. So, how they go to the restroom, your captains need to know like what to do, and every single thing that you can think of. What happens when it rains at the game? What are you gonna do? Like, these everything that you could possibly think of, train them in that way so that way it makes my job so much easier. Like, I literally, second quarter, they know we're gonna go change. I literally just look at the captain, she get up, pull out both of them. Like every single aspect they have to be trained. So, in the event you can't be at a game, it's like you're there. Yeah, but of course you're not.

SPEAKER_00 32:37

But I think the key word is the consistent part, like you're you consistently do the same routine every time, and so many coaches want to be like all over the place. You want sometimes you go, and then sometimes you do, and then sometimes you and then that's why they can't survive without you. You know what I mean? So, like, because you have these, you know, different structures and things in place, it's easier for you to just give a look and they already know what's up. Is is nobody's like, what? You know how you know how the kids be doing, what girl? You know what I'm talking about, you know. So it's like is she already know? Okay, well, boom, get up, we going, and it's not even a question about where we going, nobody's asking that. Because we you know we're going.

SPEAKER_03 33:17

We go this, we know everything, you know. Most of the time, um most of the time I'm uh running to catch up with them because they know exactly where to go, what to do. All I need is the signal, and it's time for them to go. And that and I'm laughing because the um the moment you're saying, like, some people like you look at them like what I get that at practice. So then I'm just like, I want to like give it to me now. So when we get in front of you, people you're not embarrassing me. Like, let's get it all right here and do it. And I call them like I always to go back to something else that you said when we're talking about the bonnet and dancing together. Sisterhood is one of the biggest things that I teach them. Like, they cannot argue in front of me. Like, there's their sisters, they're gonna have their arguments or whatever, because like arguing about the count or how something goes or which way you're supposed to look, like those, but they cannot full-blown have arguments in front of me because that's not conducive to what it is that we're busy. Sisterhood means so much to me, and them being sisters means a lot to me, and that's why I like each class. You can't be, you're not golden essence until you've done a full year of understanding what golden essence is, and they build that sisterhood with the people they're coming in with, and then they're building a sisterhood with their big sisters or whatever the case is, and that's why, like, with Golden Essence, they get their gold jackets on the last game as a symbol of crossing over, and then they get gifts from their big sister as like, yeah, we know we we took you through it, but it was all out of love, and then that next game is just like a good old kumbaya, we're all the same. Like, it's a whole I swear, every single game after because Creekside is has a very good football team, so our last game is never our last game. So that next game, it's a different vibe with the team, like they're dancing harder, they're doing everything, and everybody's matching the same energy because they feel like yeah, I'm with my sister, I'm doing this with my sister. So that part is very, very, very important to me. And like you said, they look better when they feel a bond or whatever the case is. And I tell them all the time, like, even real sisters don't get along. Y'all not finna get along all the time. But I guarantee you, when you say I can't stand her, and then you go on the hallway and somebody else, oh, I want to fight what you want to fight who? You want to do who? Who? Not her, no, I want to, but you can't, like that kind of vibe. So that's that's very, very important.

SPEAKER_00 36:02

So, okay, as a male coaching, let's talk about it. So, um, it's a lot of men that coach nowadays, and I won't even say nowadays, to be honest, this has been for a while. Like, I know since when I first I remember when I was when I first started coaching, I think that was 2008 or nine, one of those. I think it was 2008, I think was my first year coaching high school. And it was kind of wild because every day somebody was bringing something, a flyer for this, uh, or something, you know, like, oh, I can coach and I'm, you know, I teach dance, and I mean, but it's all it was always men, always men. It was and I'm like, well, are women just not bold enough to, you know, and I feel personally not all not all women are qualified, obviously, but but majority of the males aren't qualified, you know what I mean? And it was said once before to me from a band director when I once did this case study, he was like, Well, how come when y'all go to games or y'all see each other out places, why don't coaches, you know, like interact how the band directors interact? And I was like, we don't usually have commonalities, right? Because for to become a band director, you they all went to school for that. Meanwhile, as a coach, it it's gonna it varies. I mean, from zero experience to a lot, you know, so it's like it's wild, like the audacity of some, but I mean, but in some cases, they know better than the women. So I don't, I mean, and I know you've been in the game for a minute, so like how do you feel about you know being a male in this space? Because I don't I don't even think it's a minority, to be honest.

SPEAKER_03 38:03

Well, I can say there are for okay, for Golden Passionates, they've had a male choreographer for decades. Uh so there was Roger Howard that was before, of course, before me, that shift shifted the trajectory for passionates, and then there was um Deterrius Perkins who also came in and then elevated it. So for me coming behind other males, there was this is what it was. So I'm I was used to that. So then when I got into spaces like you mentioned, uh there was no commonality with coaches. So once I got into the area when HBCU Dance Corp came around, and I was doing things with that, and then I became a counselor or coach for that as well, and then meeting other coaches, and then we're getting together and we're talking, and there's like this picture that was like floating around. Um, and I think I posted it somewhere, maybe squad buses or whatever. And it was like uh myself, there was Bridget, there was Asia, there was uh Danny, there was Janier, like all the legends at a table sitting there. We're just talking, we're talking about things. This is how it happens with the dogs, this is what happened with stinkers, this is what I experienced with passionates, and so now we're creating spaces where coaches are coming together and figuring out hey, we're going through the same crap, aren't they as different as the style? So that was very, very important. But then even in that space, I'm still sitting at a table full of women, so in a space of HBCU dance, males are more so the minority. There are a lot more now, and there were some before me, like uh Brian with uh Morris Brown.

SPEAKER_00 40:08

Well, and yeah, bulb winning with Sarco Champagne.

SPEAKER_03 40:13

And then um Ernest with uh 14K, um, there were males around uh before me, but being in a space where it's just like I'm around women that normally, and just being truthful, don't or weren't as receptive to males being over collegiate teams. And then now we're in a same space, and you're seeing what it is that I have to offer and how I'm handling business and handling these women. Uh it kind of changed the mindset for some people. Uh, and I know for like uh Bridget even called me once, former Sting Ed coordinator, and the current band director that we have just had gotten the position, and then he called to like, you know, do some research and like, hey, I don't know if you know this guy. I'm taking this position. What do you know about him? It's just like, yeah, we love chance, he does his thing, he's been doing X, Y, and Z. And there's a group of us that don't typically care for males being over teams of girls, but chance changed our mindset on that. And it's all about, like, of course, how the way you're carrying yourself, how you have your businesses set up, how you are doing things with these young women. And for me, it's not about me. And some male coaches, I don't want to say just male, some coaches in general. In general, it's about it's about putting myself out there, and I'm using this platform to put myself out there, and it was never about me ever. It's about training up these girls, these women, these young ladies to be better than the vision that they have for themselves. Because a lot of times I'm they just want to hit that lid. Like, I want to make the team, and I just want to make every game. No, how about you make the team, you make every game, and now you're building to be a leader on this team, and you're building to be the next coach. Because you know how the knees, knees, back start, yeah, you know, you get up there. So I can't, I can't do it forever. But you know, the goal is always to have somebody within the family continue the legacy of the family. So I'm just like, let's let's teach you how to do X, Y, and Z. And I feel like people see that within myself and see that it's not about anything else but these dancers. So as a male, I I had to learn this, and it wasn't something like coming into the game. My first year was horrible. Like, I wanted to quit. I was very emotional, and I'm just like listening to everything that people had to say. I'm a fan of HBCU dance, so I'm on the platforms, the YouTube, the things of that nature because I am a fan and I'm looking at it, but I see the comments, and I'm just like, this person wants this Koyak for back. He got them looking like this, they look like men. They do this, they do that at X, Y, and Z. And I'm just like, and I'm so I'm there and I'm trying to like make the team look like continuing somebody else's legacy, making sure I'm doing this. They need to look like Roger, they need to look like D, and they need to blend it together. And it was so mind-bloggingly, and the uh comments and the things, and of course, you know how people are very negative on the internet, you know, right, Twitter bullies. And I just like I had to get to the point, and it was just like bump these people. Like, if I'm gonna do this again, like I have to do it the way I need to do it. And even to this day, you know, I still get negative conversations. Comments and it doesn't bother me or faze me at this point because I've been here for this long. But it's in that point I had to grow and just like met, you know, reading comments, men shouldn't be over girl teams, and this is that and the third. But then on the other side of it, seeing people rally behind me and come with the facts, like he's not the first one to do it. He's there were males before him on that team, and there were males at 14K, Champagne, Bubblin, like so. This isn't new, but it's always funny to me, like the things that people critiqued Passionate about when I got over them, you see in other teams now. Like, passionates dance like gay boys in the club, but now you see people voguing and doing the things in their accounts now when back then it was a problem. But it's getting praised. So I'm just like, you know, maybe maybe we were a little bit ahead of our time, you know. Who knows? But it was something that I had to learn to just not care and do what it is that I'm gonna do, because you're not gonna please everybody. So I just had to learn that and as a and realize like my gender doesn't define the talent that I can do with dance. So if I have to put on which I've had to put on some heels, which ironically, I used to teach a heel class, and it started because of Passionettes. So Passionettes, we used to wear the go sequest diletto heels.

SPEAKER_01 45:37

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 45:38

And girls, some girls were having they never walked in heels before. So I'm just like, I gotta lead by example. So I went and found me some heels with a stiletto, and I put them bad button, and I'm just like, if I can do it, you can do it. If I can drop it low and pick it up, it was a problem. So that and that sparked something else. But it was just like, if I have to do this as a male to teach a lady or a young woman how to be the essence of a woman, then that's what I'm just gonna have to do. And my gender doesn't define me being able to strut, me being able to sachet, me being able to give a snap or a head whip, which I love, I love hair.

SPEAKER_00 46:21

You always got a little, I'm like, okay now, we're gonna We're gonna be up and uh because what was that the stand? I had I was practicing recently um that you taught at the HBCU um the HBCU dance ADD conference. Oh, yeah, where you did the stand session. I said, oh my god, it's always a whip, whip, something wrong with it.

SPEAKER_03 46:47

That's a chance staple. If you don't have a head whip or a flip or a quick look, you ain't did it.

SPEAKER_00 46:53

You ain't make it. So let's get into um your field shows, okay? So typically, and recently I did an episode on this. Um most teams in high school in particular only do about you know one or two routines for the whole season. Your girls seem to do about 10, okay? And I'm trying to figure out what y'all got going on because and what kind of time y'all on, because y'all not on the same time we on. So, like, how are how many of y'all do for real? And like, how are you able to get them on board? Because what they executing though, not they ain't just out there, they are executing with full dancing transitions, they ain't walking or running. Like, how what are you doing over there?

SPEAKER_03 47:45

I can't tell you, I ain't telling. No, I'm just kidding. Uh, so we normally get uh a short window. Um, so I have to wait, of course, for the band directors to arrange the music. So I can decide the song, let them know, they say yay, or they tell me it's different. Creekside, I have full autonomy over the songs. Albany State, it depends on the direction that the band director is going. And if he has a theme for the show, he'll sometimes tell me the song that he wants, we'll talk about it, or I'll pick the song. So, but either way it goes, I have to wait for the bandwidth to give me the arrangement. And sometimes it's like the day uh the day I'm deciding to practice. So, like, like I told you, Passionates, we'll practice new field shows on Sunday. Sometimes it's on that Sunday, I'm just like, hey, we at practice. Oh, I'm I'm sitting in it now. I get the song and we're at practice, and I gotta make sure it has to be done on Sunday because I have to go home.

SPEAKER_00 48:44

So you teaching the full field show that day?

SPEAKER_03 48:46

Full field show.

SPEAKER_00 48:48

Shit, are you walking in there with the field show already made? Are you just kind of like on the way?

SPEAKER_03 48:52

I just told you, I just I just told you I got the song that day.

SPEAKER_00 48:56

I mean, you you knew what song it was gonna be, right?

SPEAKER_03 48:59

Yeah, I know the song, but see, I have an issue. Be and this is why I can't remember my own choreography, because I can't make choreography beforehand. So like I have to do it right before or during. And a lot of times I'm teaching, I'm teaching as I'm making it as I'm teaching. So, like, for example, when you brought up the stand that I taught at ADD, I made that while I was teaching it to y'all. So I can't, I can't, my brain doesn't work like that. Like I can be in the car and I'll listen to the song, and I listen to the song on the way there because the songs tell me when to move. So I can I hear and I'm like, okay, that's 4A counts. We need to move there. Okay, boom, boom, boom, boom. Oh, I like that elevation of the song that can a stunt can go there, or blah blah blah blah. So I have like my pinpoints, but Choreo, I'm teaching it.

SPEAKER_00 49:55

But you don't know how they're gonna arrange it though. So that's the part that gets tricky to me. Because I don't, unless, unless sometimes if I know the arranger, like you know, most times they have the same arranger. So I know like certain times, okay. Well, this arranger, he's gonna make two counts, two counts of the chorus, he's gonna put in the front, and then he's gonna go with the verse, and then he's gonna go back to the chorus. Like I certain arrangers, I know how they're gonna write it. So I can already anticipate something. So when I'm listening to it, I got to do the whole thing.

SPEAKER_03 50:28

So when I'm listening to it, I know for a fact there's like you just said, I know for a fact, regardless of the arranger, the verse and the chorus will be in the song. And then after that, that's why I typically wait to make up the choreo when I get there. One, uh, I like to do that because I don't know if what in my brain how stuff may work, and then can it actually happen in real life? So, like, okay, if you throw her up and then she switch into do a toe touch into a switch, leap, land into the split. Let's see if we can do that. And then they looking at me like you want us to do a pike into a split, you want us to do a toe touch into a death, like they looking at me like I'm crazy. So I have to see if stuff will work, then I'll incorporate it into the routine, or if it doesn't work, I have to find a way to modify it. But yeah, for the most part, I'm making the routines when I get there. The most time we get is the first routine. Because, you know, it's during the summer, we at some some songs. Now, how do routines go? If we're going to, let's just say we have a home game and then we have an away game, and then we have another home game, I want another field show. So I'll give you a game.

SPEAKER_00 51:53

Every home game. However many home games you got, that's how many field shows you want.

SPEAKER_03 51:58

Or if we do a classic or uh a big battle of the bands, those are gonna be so like Houston, that was our first performance for the season, so we did a new routine, and then we did it at a home game and then an away game, and then if there's another home game after that, then I'm gonna do a new routine.

SPEAKER_00 52:19

Okay, so you come out for high school?

SPEAKER_03 52:22

For both.

SPEAKER_00 52:23

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 52:25

So we're typically looking at for our college, there's normally like five routines, and then for high school it's like six.

SPEAKER_00 52:43

I guess including the extra performances when y'all gotta travel and stuff.

SPEAKER_03 52:48

Yeah, so if we're doing like uh um a battle of the bands, or if we're doing um playoff games, or if it's something like just some whim stuff. So for Halloween, I want to do something different. And uh I heard Jackson State play I Need a Hero. So I was just like, oh, I like that song. So then I was like, but of course Albany State can't do it or can't play it because they only played it in the stands. So I was like, okay, that would be, I feel like this will be an amazing field show. So then I was just like, oh, okay, Albany State can't do it, so that's Alpha Passionette. And then when we got the football schedule, I saw we had a game on Halloween. So I was like, okay, I feel like that'll be dope, and it'll save me the stress of trying to find a uniform. Um, let's do I need a hero. Everybody dressed like heroes. I love Marvel. And uh we can do that, and that was just supposed to be for that game. And then it kind of just like blew up, didn't expect it to. It went extremely crazy. And like literally, my somebody literally just commented on a video like just now. Um it's still going crazy. But um, so we had to do that one again because of the hype, and the band director was like, Oh, I wanna I wanna do it again. We can clean the song up even more, you know, do it again at the bell of the band. So, yeah, so if it's something like that, like some game, like I just wanted it to be for Halloween because I didn't want to, you know, wear the costume again in November. It's not Halloween.

SPEAKER_00 54:31

Then it don't make sense to people who haven't seen the couple.

SPEAKER_03 54:36

But it still played out, it still worked, and yeah, so we're looking at like between five and six for the season, and then more than likely I'm getting uh ready for that in that week, in that time frame of a week. Um you know with colleges, we don't get a lot of time.

SPEAKER_00 54:53

Well, that's what I so that's why I'm saying, like, what because what kind of time do y'all be on? Because I mean, how are they would they learn the dances in class? Because practice for a couple of hours after school.

SPEAKER_03 55:06

We're learning it like for um, and that's why I say I feel bad for passionates. I feel it, I have to get it out in a day with passionates, like it has to be that day because I don't have any other time, and then we're looking, you're looking at teaching a routine, giving them a fair chance of like two weeks to two days to clean it up, and we have to have cuts. And then from cuts, I have to do formations and give them time to get accustomed to the formations and the transitions, and then we're doing it. But I can't teach routines without doing formations. So I make the formations as I'm teaching it and praying nobody gets cut. Because if somebody gets cut, then I have to redo the formations. And then sometimes it takes one person and it just like but you know what?

SPEAKER_00 56:00

For that reason, right there is why I always try to tell dancers, you gotta know if you can heel stretch on it on the right, I need you to heel stretch on the left because you never know. I might want this side to go left and this side to go right, and here you go talking about, oh, I can't do the left. So, what am I supposed to do now? Like, I suppose to swap you and somebody else. I gotta go back from the formation number one to figure out how I'm gonna get you over there. So just just be able to do it on both sides already. I I can leap on this side, I can't leap. Um, I ain't nobody got time for that. Because I now you stifling my creativity, I feel like. Because I gotta always consider what you can do and what you can't do. I just need you to be able to do it. So, okay, but I'm saying with the high school girls, how they gonna, I mean, for real, like they learn a whole dance in one week because I know the college girls can learn a day, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 56:55

They learn it a day, and they only get like, I try to get it out in a day with them, but two days, like two days max. Because again, I'm trying to get them ready for that college level, so you need to hurry up and take in choreo and be able to regurgitate it. And then I'm looking at them like in my mind, sometimes I hope they don't watch this, but in my mind, I'm like, I know, I just give them give them a little grace. But in my face, I'm like, you don't got it? What's the problem? Like, you I taught it to you, so why you don't have it? Like, because I want them to be able to like take it in, get it, and spit it out, and that of course helps me, but helps them in the long run because when they're going to these auditions, because these teams a lot band is coming back, dang lord, band is coming back up, and then these girls are wanting to dance, and they're trying out for these teams. So you're walking into a room of a hundred, and only teams only have between 15-20 spots, some less than that. They're gonna see you and be like, hey, she remembered this routine and learned it like that. Right. They're going up, you're fighting for spots, so I want them to be able to take that stuff in. So I'm trying to teach it to them fast, get it out, and then I'm like, after I teach it, I can breathe. So I'm like, okay, I got it out, and of course, again, because I'm making it on the spot. So my brain is already running. I keep looking at how much time I got. Okay, I've got this is that. Okay, this is that, and third, this stunt not working. This didn't work in my brain, however, I wanted to. She, I thought she had a backhand spring, but she only got a tuck and then, so it's just like so. Yeah, the quicker I can't.

SPEAKER_00 58:29

I mean, but them taking how how I mean, I guess they probably used to you now, but when you're giving it to them, they're not like, you know, like stressed out. Uh I mean, to be honest, I I haven't met a high school team, I haven't seen a high school team. They could probably execute like that. So it has to be some sort, some sort of like, it's something you're doing in the training process to make them feel confident that they can do that. I've even recently talked to coaches that are like, I'm trying to, I was trying to get him a new show every week and they was stressed out, you know.

SPEAKER_03 59:00

So how that um they they love field show, like they crave field shows. Like if I say we're doing a new field show, they are excited to do another field show. Like, I'm like, y'all are some y'all okay? We need to sign up for AA, because y'all get a little dick. But so they they're excited about it, and of course, as we're learning it, they're like, we ain't at the end yet. I'm just like, especially passionates, because it's like longer field shows. So they're like, we ain't at the end yet. And then the high school girls, they're like, like, we just finished our competition routine. They was clapping for five minutes.

SPEAKER_00 59:42

Oh, wait, because you do you do competition squad too? This okay, see, that's a whole separate something else. Because we talk about competition G HSA. Chan, shut up. You're like a machine.

SPEAKER_03 59:57

Um this this time of the year, it's crazy that I feel bad for them, but I I can't let them know I feel bad for them. I we just have to push because they're learning multiple routines at once. So, like, I like it for them because again, it's training and it's always keeping their brain going and having to learn how to switch. Like, I'm going from competition, which is hip-hop and doing like this to majorette, and it's doing it like this, to putting on a Christmas show, and we're doing this, so it's different genres all at the same time, and being able to switch and make it more versatile, but that's on the high school level, of course, and then on the college level, there we're still going and they're about to get ready for basketball season, which is pretty much just stands. But yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:42

But I guess what I'm saying is how are they conditioned to do that? Like, what I mean, because even even your even your um field shows are very athletic, like so, so like it's a constant move, this, twist, turn, jump, and then you know, on the floor, get up, up, down. Like it's a lot happening, and they ain't they ain't dead. So how do you maintain that during the year? Because I'm for real, like this is not it's not even close to normal. This is extreme, like crazy. And I mean in a in a very good way. I'm just trying to figure out how are how are they even human? Like, what where are you how do you get them conditioned to to do this? Because at the end of the day, like half the team would have been gone had it been somebody else. That I quit, because I ain't coming back, you know, or uh they just don't show back up. So to keep to maintain them for the whole year and they crave more and more and more and more, like something else is happening. I know okay the summer, they burn and this and that, but like, can you is there something else you can think that might have be the glue as to how they're able to maintain? Ain't nobody talking about they gotta, oh, I gotta go do soccer. And so I gotta like, how are they remaining like for all this time?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:12

They actually, and it's um funny that you picked that sport. My captain, my current captain plays soccer as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:21

So she's like that's their favorite soccer or volleyball? That's their favorite thing talking about they going to do.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:28

Yes, they're doing both so football season, they know they can't do anything else. So it's really like if it's not like royal court or anything like that, I really like I don't even like when they do that, but I'm like, okay, live a life, I guess. It's something else besides dance, I guess. But uh football season is just dance, is all you have time for, literally. And then when we get into like the competition season, uh by the time we get into like January-ish, like we're done with the routine, so I there's a little bit more leeway, so I let them do other stuff. But to answer your question, I'm just like I try to have a relationship with them outside of just dance. Like I try, like some of them call me dad, uh, and like I hear in the hallway, and it's just like appear, like you can be at a football game if your son says, Mama, and you you know it's your child. Yeah. So I can be in the hallway and I'm just like, dad! I'm just like, what they won't. Um, so I try to build that relationship with them. I talk to them about like, you know, personal stuff that they may have going on, or just like I want to be the because I see them a lot. Like, I see them during the day, uh, I see them at practice. So I need I they I know they need a support system inside this building that they spend so much time in. So I'm trying to be an extra support system with them. When I see them in the hallway, I'll just like bump them and keep on walking, or they in their phone, I'll scroll up, be like, who we talking to? And like stuff like that. Like the little things deleted them know, and I feel like that keeps them wanting to come. And then even girls that like, I've only had two girls the whole time I've been there not return, and they both wanted to do other stuff that their parents were like, I can't pay for both. So they had to like pig name, like, okay, well, I did dance, let me try this. But they still like come around, talk, whatever the case is, things like that. So I feel like a relationship is very, very important because sometimes you're spending so much time with these kids, they need an outside, or they need to feel like I can't talk to my mom, or I don't want to talk to my mom about this. I know you probably gonna cuss me out too, but it's different. So I'm gonna tell you.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:47

Well, sometimes I think it's like if they tell us first, then we can help them smooth it over, or how to approach this. When you tell your mama, you say this, and then like you say it like that, you know what I'm saying? Or when you talk to your daddy, you're gonna be like, you know, maybe tell your daddy first, then tell you, you know, it's like we can help them kind of smooth it out, but when you don't have that middle person, and you know, I feel like even sometimes you gotta like you might and tell the parent for them, but be like, okay, she's gonna come talk to you.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:17

She's scared. So can you like when she tell you, you know, we we had this conversation. Yeah, no, no, no, I'll be, I don't care. Oh, okay, but you're like, don't go on 10 because she's scared. So maybe like let her get it out and then maybe come in at a six. Let's try that. Let's try six, not go with ten. So it's kind of like they like know certain things I have to tell the parents in certain kids situations because I don't want it to, of course, fall back on me, because at the end of the day, this is my job. But yeah, I'm like, you know, we gotta talk to you about this. Um I'm glad you came, I'm glad you talked to somebody, and they like, huh?

unknown 1:06:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:00

And I'm like, I don't want you to feel like you can't talk to me in my name. Because you know you told me that last situation. But this one is different.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:08

This one we don't have the.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:10

Yeah, we're gonna need we need a little reinforcements. But yeah, I feel like that's important because that draws in even on those hard days, they know like this man cares about me. He got my back, whatever the case is. So I'm gonna have his back. Whatever he needs me to do, I'm gonna get it done. And they know like they call me famous because of people know me. We go places like you, like when they on you and you come over. Oh, they hate that.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:38

How you know all these people? Shut up.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:40

Yeah, I don't know. Like, uh they call me famous or whatever the case is. Yeah, come on. So they like feel like you know he's important. So he gotta know what he's doing, because all these people don't. So I'm I I trust him or whatever the case is. And then uh, oh, this was a point that I was you asked something else, and I forgot it. So I have one-on-ones with them throughout the season. Um, and it's like, especially during the summer, and especially with passionates, because it's very, very hard. And a lot of girls, like we I pick big numbers because I know girls are gonna quit, because it is so hard. And I try to do one-on-ones to gauge their mindsets, how they feel like things are going, um, things that like if it's something that I can help them with, they're talking like it's hard. You're gonna want to quit every single day. I don't, I've never met a person, period. Any dance line, any team that was excited to go to band camp or dog camp, champagne camp. Because you know, now we're we're having two. You got your own, the dance line portion, and then you have the actual regular, yeah. So I don't know anybody that woke up every single morning and was like, I'm ready for practice this day. Like, no, you're gonna want to quit every day. Even when I cheered, I my captain was a woo. And I was like, But at the end of the day, it was something that I love and I knew I had to grow, and I want them to, you know, feel that. So I do that one-on-one check-ins with them, and I try to build that relationship. Like, I want to know what you think and what you think it matters as much as I tell you, you're new to this team. Uh, why are you talking? Like, I don't you you don't know what's going on. I don't understand why you have an opinion or anything because you don't know. So, but I'm saying that in practice, but at the end of the day, I want you to know, like, I I actually do care. This is this is not coach chance right now. This is chance, you know. Let's talk. So I feel like they get that that bond, even when girls like kind of quit or whatever, they still like speak, or if I see them on campus or in the halls or whatever the case is, they like speak because that that little piece of a relationship before they it decided to move on still mattered to them. But then those that it matters enough, like I'm staying rocking with you, I'm staying with you. We doing this X, Y, Z. Like, I I'm I'm liking it here. We have but rough days, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:10

So when you pick a team though, like you really how many you anti how many usually quit? Let's say that. If you you pick 20, you wish about five.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:20

I wish. Uh more?

unknown 1:09:24

Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:28

So let's see. For high school, I normally don't have, okay, so this past year I picked 12. I had somebody quit, and 30 minutes later she tried to come back, and I'm just like, no. Like, you quit. Like, I don't care if it was 30 minutes or five minutes ago. So no. So, no. Um, so the high schoolers are a little bit more, they're a little bit more resilient. Um, and they they have more of a blank canvas, and I'm gonna say this in the best way I I can I know how. I feel like social media kind of has made these girls entitled and put them on a pedestal at times to where they feel like I've come from this team that gets a million views, or I get a million views individually, or I go viral doing X, Y, and Z. So I'm already that girl. And you're coming onto a team on a college level because you've gained that notoriety in high school, so now you're on coming in a college level, and I'm that girl, and you can't tell me what to do, but you're not that girl here because you don't know how to do this, you know how to do that very well, which is why you got those million views, but you don't know how to do this, and now you don't want to be told what to do, and it kind of like creates a wedge in that process. So over here with the college, I experienced that issue, but with high school I don't because they're coming in on a blank canvas, and it's because I'm not I haven't gained a notoriety yet, and then by the time I do, I've learned how to be humbled enough to, you know, explain like with that with the um the Halloween hero thing, like they're almost at a million views, and of course they see it, they're like, oh my god, we all we viral. But that excit that excitement does not leave our group because you have been trained to know better than to act, like, girl, we viral. What you talking? Who you think you is? You ain't went viral. I wish they were chopped in the throat. So yeah, that that that plays a part in the wanting to come back to being able to be coachable, and then I'll tell them like at that moment where you're not coachable and I can't tell you what to do, then this isn't the team for you. Because you I don't want a comfortable dancer. I want you to feel confident in what you're doing, but I never want you to feel comfortable because dance is always elevating. Majorette is not what it was 50 years ago, or not majorette, excuse me, HBCU dance, this dance culture, dance line is not what it was 50 years ago. The alumni will come back and be like, oh well, I can't do that. What y'all doing now? I can do the no, uh-uh. I'd have been cut every game. I don't know how y'all do it because it evolves, and that's what it's supposed to do. So you're supposed to evolve with it. And if you're comfortable, you're never going to evolve. If that giraffe has never stretched that neck, they'd have still they'd have been hungry and starving. So you gotta be uncomfortable to get confident.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:51

Okay, Chase, you be coaching, baby. I think, I think for real, like uh a lot of men they they use their emotions often. And um the male, I won't say men, but I'm saying like the male, male coaches. And I think that's what makes people turn away from it or make them feel like I can't deal, you know, because it becomes so toxic. So I that's why I think it works for you because you don't play into that emotion, but and and a lot more sound and like grounded, but far too often with the men, it's just it goes from a you know from zero to a thousand, and it's it's always a fluctuating thing to where it's like it takes the girls out, like it's it's it wears on them, and that's why they can't maintain like a team, and so it's just crazy listening to you like soundly say, Okay, well, I do this and I got this, and I got you know, organize it like this, and I didn't, and then I got these girls and I'm checking on them here. And I mean, the way you can even maintain her, you would think you ain't had no home life or nothing, and meanwhile, you be out here just kicking it and doing your whole community service and sorority, I mean, you know, fraternity stuff, yeah. I mean, like, you know, whole hustle everything. And I'm like, how and when is all of this happening? But it's amazing that you can manage all these things because maybe all us can't do it for real. But that is that is seriously why a lot of people don't deal with the men or they feel a way about the men because they can't do it how you're doing it. So I really hope like a lot of guys um actually watch this and like are listening and reach out to you for real. I mean, because you can almost do a clinic on male coaching for real, off of this because the the emo they can't you can't live in with the emotions, like it's everything you gotta suppress a little bit because when you take the girls on that roller coaster like that, it's it's messing with them for real because the men be taking them on the roller coaster too. You know what I'm saying? So it's like you can't you you the dating life doing that, so you can't do that over here. Something has to be constant, and I'm gonna go.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:13

Yeah, it has to be a a level of now. Don't get me wrong, I'm crazy. I ain't gonna I purposely, I yeah, and it's so quick, and they be looking at me like, this man, weird. Like, I purposely sometimes make them practice near the football team so they can hear what the football team goes through. Like they they them football, they get it, and they just be like, You crazy, but you do you now y'all about the same. And I just I'm like, I feel as if if it's okay for the football team, it should be okay for the dancers. And at the end of the day, it's a sport. And if I have to get a point across, because in this day and age, can you can you please get in your split, please? Can you please get in the split? Let me ask you again to get in the split and see what happened. You like sometimes it takes that in this particular generation because they don't understand nice. And I I purposely will ask you nice for a few times, and that's that part during that summer where you were asking, like, how do they that training in the summer is very, very vital. Like, I will jump out of a plane and land on top of your forehead to get a point across so you know that I'm crazy and don't try me. So now the rest of this season is smooth. Yeah. I don't have to do it. All I gotta do is give you a look, and you know, let me um and it's funny they in at Creekside there's a stairwell, and a lot of kids like to congregate right there for that little seven minutes before they get to class. And if I'm walking by and I see any of my dancers, I'm like, y'all, I gotta go. Like they they know, and that's a part of that that training, and that part of that I have to show you that I'm crazy, so I never have to show you again.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:09

I think that's and you're right, because when I had my son, is when the girl's like, uh, Cos V, you got soft. I say, you know what? It's time for me to go.

unknown 1:17:22

It's time for me to go.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:23

It's not soft. Oh, I'm not soft. It's yeah, I gotta go. I gotta go.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:28

But they gonna tell you, they're gonna tell you that they're gonna be able to do it.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:30

But I'm out of here now. No, no, no, no. I'm out of here now because I used to beat y'all here and now I can't, because I done went in the house 10 times because I had to change the diaper, and and now I used to beat them there to purposely wait for them to be late so that I can count how many minutes they was late so that we could, you know what I'm saying? And when I can't do it no more, and y'all sliding in here, I'm like on edge, like, oh my god, how I get here out there, y'all. And then it's it's too much, it's too much. So, so y'all, you know what? Y'all got y'all right, y'all won. Y'all won.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:06

Yeah, they tell me, and they they every year the old girls will tell me, you you done got soft. Like, let her have this, or the girls that were on the team, like my current captain's now, they had they get it much easier. Like, I went home crying every day. Nah, they go home laughing.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:24

I'm like, But you know, parents be saying that too, though, about the kids. Like, one kid got away, let my sister tell her, Yeah, you let her you let Sean get away with murder. You would have, nah, not really. I was worse than her, though. If you could teach one lesson to all auxiliary dances, dance teams or dancers nationwide, what would it be? If you could leave them with some some real good tips, like, hey, hear me when I say.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:54

Do you once you find you make it consistent and knowing that trial and error is your best friend, but you have to learn from the errors and make them some successes. Learn from the failure, make those some successes, and then make those successes even bigger successes. And always stay grounded and humble in what you're doing because it could easily be gone. Like I tell the girls all the time, like the band of red could easily be like, I want to go in another direction next year, and I'm out of here. But y'all should be able to take the tools, the consistency, the learning from your mistakes, and drive that for the next season, even if the style changes. So be grounded, be humble, and just always think of how can I build this program to withstand itself without me.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:55

Um, and then last but not least, but what's next? What's next for you?

SPEAKER_03 1:20:01

Currently, short-term next is uh passionates, just making sure like we're staying current, staying relevant, and um always uh that was my other sorry, one more tip. Remember that everything is about uh recruitment. So everything that you're everything that you're doing now is going to somebody's gonna see it and be like, oh, I want to be a part of that team, I want to do this, and the better that you are at being creative and the structure, the discipline, people are gonna see that you're gonna attract what it is that people see. So if you're giving the ghetto, you're gonna get ghetto. If you're given discipline, you're gonna get discipline because they're gonna see that's what it is. But saying that to say with them is just continuing to build the legacy and the sisterhood, the bond of what it is that they have to do. Um, pretty well, I mean, that's my life right now. I can't see. I would love to, you know, do something with the Falcons and the Hawks and things of that nature. So I guess that would be something I want to do next, but right now it's just continue to build these programs and build these young ladies into amazing performers.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:14

I forgot to ask you because what you just said made me think about it. How many girls do you normally get at your trials?

SPEAKER_03 1:21:20

Oh, yeah. So uh for Golden Essence, it's probably like 40. Um, 40-ish, it like fluctuates. And then for Passionettes, we do uh rounds. So you have to like turn in your application and we do grade checks, and so that knocks people off. So we started at about a good 80.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:45

Whoa.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:46

Ish a 75, but again, that fluctuates as well. Uh when we started the doing virtual, the numbers went up because I guess like they feel like I have a better chance in doing it virtually than in person. Um, or I can not embarrass myself in front of everybody and maybe embarrass myself in private, and they can tell me in private that I'm I don't know, but I don't know. But the numbers did increase when we started the virtual process. So we start around about between between 60 and 80, fluctuates um from the year. And then um depending on the vision of the band director, division uh that I have the amount of uniforms, all that good stuff plays a part in the number that we'll pick. And I'm like, shoot, if I see a good 25 girls, I'm gonna pick 25 girls, and I'm just gonna have to figure it out. But well, we're not gonna take out the camera trip this time. We're gonna keep that. But yeah, it just depends on the uh the talent and what it is that's the vision of the band director and myself at for that current year.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:52

Well, I also love how you have like you see you have a lot of autonomy, and these band directors trust you. Um, because that's also part of what I talked about on one of my last episodes, is like um being able to like for the band directors to see you as valuable enough to like have at the table and trust you enough to okay, well go ahead and pick the song. Because you know, a lot of these, I mean, they're musicians and they're serious about that thing, you know what I'm saying? So sometimes they don't, you know, if they don't see you as a person that's equal to them, right? Then it's like if you just the dance dude, you know, then it's I mean, because for real, like that's some of them do see, and I that's why I feel like if you but but when you show value, then oh no, he knows his stuff, you know what I'm saying? So now, yeah, yeah, yeah. What you got? You know, they're more ready to listen. And um, I that's why I feel like a lot of people don't approach their jobs professionally in that way to where where people can respect them enough to for that craft, you know, to be able to like contribute in that way. So I think that's really dope that you have that. Woo! Well, child.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:06

That energy that bonds, it makes uh me feel appreciated and I'm able to do what it is that I have to do. Like, even if uh Professor Brooks or Dr. Brooks now, congratulations. Uh he does like he has this theme for his show. He'll be like, okay, this is the song I want to use. Do what you will with it, whatever the case is. And then just like he doesn't see it until uh we practice at the field. And sometimes he's like looking at the band, and this is that and the third. So sometimes he's seeing it at the game uh for the first time, and he's just like trust whatever it is, and then Bailey is the same way. He's like, Oh, okay, well, you know what? This is the song you want to use, I'm gonna try to build a show around that. Or this the song, whatever you want to just tell me the tempo, we're gonna make it happen. And same thing, you know. Sometimes Bailey actually sees it at the game because we practice in the parking lot in the back, and they drew a football field on the parking lot for us, so they can't do the routine full out on the parking lot. Uh-huh. So he's seeing it for the first time at the game because we'll go do our own thing in the stadium. But yeah, so I really love and value, like I'm very, very appreciative for the men that I work with because they trust me with the girls, picking the uniforms, designing the uniforms, all that good stuff, and everything. They're like, oh, the girls look good. I like that uniform, this is that, and the thing. So it's it's a really good feeling to feel valued and appreciated, even after all these years.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:41

Yeah, yeah. And I'm dead serious about that cleaning that you're gonna run for the men because you got I'm for real, you got like a whole formula, and it you you you can speak to them in that way, like, look, you got the years, you got the experience, it's tried and true. And they just need to take notes. They need to sit down and listen. Because I mean, for real, it's like, okay, and now I mean I see some guys out here doing it well. I do, but I feel like at this moment, like you've been doing it longer. Um, because the guys that were doing it before you, they already stopped. Um, and because you've done college and high school, you have both, you know, experience in both heavily. So it's like you already, I I've been there, done it. And let me go ahead and tell y'all, you know, type of thing. So um, yeah. So hopefully you take that information and run with it because um, and I'll be on the front row. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:41

No, most definitely, I would definitely look into it. And I'm I'm more than like anybody can come and ask me questions, like, and people will tell you, like, I don't know, people always like I have like this resting face, especially like if I'm at a game or something, I'm like worried, I'm like, is this fear show finna hit? They got to stand up and do this. Like, so I have that look on my face of people like I wanted to come and talk to you. And I'm like, please do get my mind away from something else besides this. Like, no, I have that look, but I'm very approachable. People come in my inbox asking questions or whatever the case is. I'm very receptive and any questions because I don't want anybody to experience what I experience trying to figure all of this out, especially being the mail or listening to comments or what people have to say. So if I can be like FTP and tell you to keep on pushing, yeah, yeah. Bump the people.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:34

Oh, go ahead and let them know real quick where they can go and follow your girls. I know at the bottom it has where you know they can follow you, but can you tell them really quick how to support your girls?

SPEAKER_03 1:27:45

Yes, yes, yes. So on Instagram for Creekside, you have at golden underscore essence underscore CHS. And then for the Golden Passionates, it's just at goldenpassionates. Please follow them on Instagram. See what we have going on. I like to post their videos there. And I also post them on my own YouTube page. So you can just type in golden passionates. It'll pop up. It's gonna be me. And then uh TikTok. Hello. Golden Peanuts. Passionates have TikTok golden S's though. They I I need to get them one. They are willing to. Why they get one now? I don't so yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:27

They do that on TikTok.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:29

Oh no, I control the social media because I don't have um Hold on, hold on, hold on.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:33

You running to social media too? Come on. Go take a nap. Go take a nap.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:45

I didn't know. What are your advices? Because geez. Um because social media by itself is that's a job. That's the already the full time job.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:55

Yeah, yeah. Trying to keep up, make sure that they're you know staying relevant and showing a different side of them besides dance. It's it's it's a lot. It's a lot, but I'm I'm scared to let them do it.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:08

Let them children do something.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:10

Nah, dance. They know your standards. Dance. That's all I need to dance.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:16

They know your standards by now, I'm sure. Oh my god. Well, yes, I'm so glad you came on. Um yeah. So I'm looking forward to, you know, like a little recap, maybe, you know, next year or something. We can circle back after you have your event for all the men. And uh we'll talk about how that we'll talk about how that went.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:43

But yeah, so thank you so much, so much, so much for having me. Please keep doing what you're doing for dance. Like all this stuff is very, very important. And I just feel like it's a a space that's created to help and uplift each other in a space. Like, like you said before, like before we didn't have those common meeting places, those commonalities, and now we're getting those and being able to use platforms like this to give out tips and things and that nature, and then being like, okay, well, I I'm experiencing this, I can reach out to chance, or I can talk to Rashon and see if she knows somebody that can help me with this experience, or maybe she can. So I just want to say thank you for what you're doing. Please keep it going, and I'm so proud of you.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:25

Yeah, thank you. All right, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. We are at the end, and I'm so sad to go. But uh, let me see if it'll do it for me. No, you must be special.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:45

Got the touch.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:47

Thank you all for joining in. Make sure you go ahead and follow our guest, Chan Scott Bennett, on his social media platform, as well as go and follow and support his girls. He's doing amazing work um with these kids. And so I really hope everybody found some gems um in anything that he said because he said a lot. Okay. Um, he ran a whole clinic for us in this whole entire episode. So please make sure you run it back and take some notes um and take it back to your girls and you know, share it or to your teams and please share this information. We want to see more coaches and dancers and parents and being directors and whomever that are supporting these young ladies to please watch and learn. Um, that's what this is all about. So, again, I thank you all for joining us. Again, I'm your host, Vershawn Lee, and we're gonna go ahead and sign out.