WHAT?! Guys dancing?

   Today I decided to do my blog on a dance team in a high school.  Mainly because I have done some work with them and I knew the teacher would be okay with me observing.  Today the boys had to learn a different routine than the girls.  The boys went into the wide hall outside the classroom and the girls stayed in the classroom.  There were around 20 boys and the male captain had to start warming them up. While he was looking for a song, some of the guys were fooling around by showing off their dancing skills to each other.  The other guys were just waiting or ignoring.  This latter group of guys, seemed more mature and learned the choreography that was being taught faster. While warm-ups, some of the guys where not paying much attention on how the warm up was done.  Even the mature ones, seemed unsure on how to accoplish them.  The captain was not very reinforsable, so sometimes I had to jump in and keep the students attentive.
      Some of the guys were talking so much, that the teacher had to come out and hush them.  She stayed for a while, until the guys were paying attention to the male captain. 
      The students helped each other and made some interpersonal learning by working with their dance mates and correcting them or showing what move they were forgetting.  Also, they used different kind of techniques to learn the steps.  Some students needed counts, or the words of the song, or "special effects" (like: hit, hit, look up, shwoosh etc.).  The dance male captain also performs the dance for the rest of them so that they have an idea of how the dance looks, but he also urges them to put in their own style.  When the  guys like a move that the male captain choreographed, they cheer in agreement.  As the captain tries to remeber the next step, some of the guys punch each other and do some horseplay that is stopped when it is time to learn the new step.  The teacher reiterated the importance of staying together during the choreography and gave them some pointers on how to stay synchronized.
   They then divided into smaller groups and performed for their fellow dance mates.  I even danced with them and it was fun!  Finally they showed the girls and the girls were very supportive shouting names and cheering them when their steps were strong.  I liked observing them and I will definitely come back.  It is so great to see how much support they give each other.