After earning the first place and crowd favorite awards at this year’s Tet Festival, in late April the UC High All Female (UCAF) and All Male (UCAM) Dance Teams will be performing at Six Flags for the first time.

   Some of the venues that the two teams have performed at this year, according to UCAF Captain Litzy Palafox, include, “Children’s Fair in Mira Mesa, AB Samahan at San Diego State, Tet Festival in Mira Mesa, and we’ll be doing the Six Flags Competition in April.”

   UCAM will be performing at Six Flags later in the spring, according to UCAM Member Trevor Hauner. In the meantime, UCAM will be practicing for future competitions. “[In terms of improvement, UCAM] could definitely improve on not messing around a lot during practice, being confident with our moves, and being really excited — out of our bubbles — while dancing,” Hauner said.

   Competitions usually have their own rubrics, but will usually judge on cleanliness, performance, audience appeal, presentation, and choreography, explained Palafox. According to a website about dance and choreography, originality, enthusiasm, and difficulty are also factors counted when scoring teams (sharpint.biz).

   UCAF will be performing a Beyonce set at Six Flags. “There are so many songs we’ve danced to that it’s hard to keep track of all of them,” Palafox stated. She added, “We stick to different styles of dance, because we all have our own styles. The songs range from slow and emotional to hard and angry.”

   “The other teams were always really good. We love a challenge and it’s super fun watching them. We always get inspired to create our own combos after we watch other groups,” Palafox continued.

   “I joined UCAF, because I’ve always loved to dance. I believe it’s a form of expression and I felt if I put that negative energy into something like UCAF it’d be healthy for me. Our team is very sister-based,” Palafox explained. She continued, “We fight, we laugh, we love. Just like any sisterhood, we have our downs, but we also have our ups and we love to dance together. It’s worked as a release of energy and helped me connect with people that share the same passion.”