Wrapping up another year of school spirit and half-time entertainment is the University of Toronto’s Thundersquad dance team. The chance that this is the first time you’ve heard the name is high, especially if you don’t make it out to Varsity sporting events. They’re the girls keeping the crowds pumped up and entertained at the local basketball and volleyball games during halftime. But don’t let the job description fool you—they’re so much more than cheerleaders.
“We’re dancers, first and foremost,” says Jaymie Sampa, co-captain of the dance group. “We like to support our athletics department, that’s really important to us, but it’s also just one part of what we do.”
Along with co-captain Jennifer McFarlane, the two choreograph many of the dance routines the team performs. But Sampa, who has been dancing since she was 14 years old, wanted to emphasize the contributions of her Thundersquad teammates and the team’s execs, who play an important, if not central, role in choreography.
The group is made up of nine University of Toronto students taking classes in Phys-ed, Criminology, and, yes, even Engineering. On top of an already rigorous academic schedule, you can find them rehearsing at the Athletic Centre for six hours a week, performing for various women’s and men’s games on Saturdays.
“Our practices are pretty demanding.” says Sampa, a third-year physical education student.We work ourselves hard and try to self-motivate,” “We train pretty intensely, starting with leg strengthening warm ups, moving on to some technique work, and then we do choreography for the last hour of practice. It’s not crazy, but it’s not recreational either.”
Started six years ago, the team was created to promote school spirit, as well as the furthering of dance education on campus. The team specializes in jazz and hip hop dance, selected through auditions in the third week of September. Anyone interested in joining up can find all the information they need at the Athletic Centre’s program office, as soon as the first week of school.
“I was just looking for a place to continue dancing when I got to U of T” said Sampa, recalling how she first became involved. “In my first year I heard about the auditions through word of mouth, and I went to a try out and made the team.”
Even though the team goes through a rigorous amount of technique training, the degree of specialty seems to vary.
“All the girls come from different dance backgrounds,” says Sampa. “Some having danced their entire lives, while others turned to dance later on.”
Not quite on the Varsity roster, and not your typical dance team, the Thundersquad have managed to be completely student-run through fundraising, buying of uniforms, and selforganization. The biggest objective for the group is to raise morale, encouraging students to feel proud of their school.
The Thundersquad dance team wants to confront the age-old problem of student apathy towards university athletics. As sports and school spirit are typically not associated with the University of Toronto, the team hopes to encourage students to feel proud of the Varsity Blues. “People who don’t usually come to our games always say that they were surprised that a U of T game could be so fun,” says McFarlane.
The amount of athletic talent often goes unnoticed by the student population, and the Thundersquad team are determined to keep fighting for their athletes. For Sampa and Mc- Farlane, the camaraderie and community that is created within Varsity Athletics provides a supportive environment within the larger university campus.
Unlike typical halftime cheerers, the team participates in dance competitions. The Festival of Dance at Hart House is seen as an opportunity for the team to showcase their skills in front of their peers and colleagues. “There’s quite a few different groups on campus,” Sampa explained. “There’s belly dancing, hip hop, and lyrical dance groups. I’ve seen some really great performances, and it’s a good experience for the dancers to network a little bit. I’ve only heard good things about it, and it showcases what U of T has to offer. We have some really talented dancers on campus.”
With the sports season coming to an end, the ladies are currently hard at work preparing for the Humber Hype Dance Competition on March 14. As dance competitions come more into vogue, the girls on the team have become every bit the athletes, as the teams they cheer on at the AC. “I see dance as a sport,” says Sampa. “One of the great misconceptions is that dance is just an art form, but it’s really physically demanding on your body. I would consider our team an athletic team, because we work hard, and take our Blues looking for silver liningtness into account.”
