Weaved into the fabric of every community are longstanding traditions.
They give a town’s residents something to look forward to, something to do together and something that brings unity.
When the tradition of the men’s dance exhibition performance at the Mahomet-Seymour dance competition went away in the early 2000’s, it wasn’t something that was sorely missed until the tradition reemerged again in 2012.
“I remember watching it when I was in grade school, but then they stopped doing it while I was in high school,” Mahomet-Seymour graduate, dance participant and former head dance coach Margaret Miller said.
Miller remembers the tradition coming back to life when her brother, Griffin, was in high school in 2012.
Chandler Denby was a sophomore during that time.
Denby said the 2012 performance included 12 high school-aged boys who took the risk of performing in front of the crowd full of dance parents as they waited for the results.
“The boys who did it were very comical, and had lots of fun,” Denby said.
That original group of Mahomet-Seymour male dancers also set up the system that guides the performance each year.
The girls’ dance team, led by the captains and upperclassmen, direct and choreograph the dance while the underclassmen help the boys learn the moves they need to perform to put the dance together.
Denby said this opportunity, of bringing girls and boys together, under the umbrella of fun has helped relationships in many ways.
“You connect over the sport,” she said. “They get a newfound appreciation for the sport, and realize that it actually is a sport, that it’s hard and not just something you can easily do.”
As the Bulldog dance coach from 2013-2018, Miller saw the performance in a different light.
“It’s entertaining to watch, but behind the scenes, it’s so much more than a joke performance,” she said. “It’s an opportunity for a bunch of kids to get together who would not get together otherwise: kids from different facets of life, from drama, football, and chess get together and just laugh and get to know each other.
“I loved watching it as from a coach’s perspective because I got to see new relationships form and respect being built in multiple ways.”
Mahomet-Seymour senior Adam Von Holten will graduate in 2019 with four years of the men’s dance team under his belt.
“All the senior guys were like, ‘Dude, you’ve got to do it! It’s one of the best things you’ll do in high school!’ I was a freshman and like, ‘Okay. I”ll do it.’ ” he said. “I’d seen it before, and the crowd was laughing, and I like being part of stuff like that.”
The men’s dance team practices with the girls’ dance team three or four times over winter break to prepare for the performance that occurs the first weekend of the new year.
Von Holten said the two- to three-hour practices are 75-percent goofing off and during the last 30-minutes the dancers really buckle down to learn the dance.
“I remember my freshmen and sophomore year, we only got through four songs our first and second practice. Then the third practice we were like this is our last practice, so we had to get the whole dance done in two hours,” he said.
Miller added, “Once they realize, ‘Oh my gosh, I have to learn this because I will be performing it in front of hundreds of people,’ then they really get serious.”
But the dance is something that lasts for months and sometimes even years after the boys entertain hundreds of spectators in the gymnasium.
“It’s fun when you’re at a high school dance, and one of the songs come on,” Von Holten said. “A bunch of the guys will get together and do the dance. It’s pretty cool when something like that happens.”
And for the spectators, there are things that stand out in the men’s dance performance year-after-year: the way they walk onto the court down the sideline, spinning at the corner before heading to half court, the cut-off jeans, the bandannas, the pre-dance chant, the soloist sunglasses.
“There are a lot of little traditions that they have not let go of,” Miller said.
