It was Due or Die for Kean Dance Theatre at this year’s pep rally

By Mallory Helmes | Published by November 17, 2021

It was a warm October night as Kean Dance Theatre made their way down the bleachers; blue poms in each hand, contradictory faces of excitement and nerves out on display.

They huddled together arms outstretched over the same dressed body as words of encouragement were spoken to put out the fire of nerves that were catching.

The noise of “Kean Dance Theatre” eventually floated over to them causing their linked bodies to detangle so they could run to the center of the football field, which would be their stage for the evening.

Eventually, each dancer followed the personalized directions to their own special locations, squatted down, with poms shaking, waiting for the familiar cue that allowed them to begin what they had been working on for the past five weeks.

“…You only get one shot at it, it’s due or die and you have to just leave it out there,” said Danya Abdou senior studying communications with a health minor, Vice President of Kean Dance Theatre, and one of the choreographers for Kean Dance Theatre’s pep rally dance.

For those of you who weren’t able to attend this year’s pep rally, which took place on Oct. 15 at 6 p.m., you missed out on interactive challenges, videos created by sports teams, and a performance from Kean Dance Theatre.

Kean Dance Theatre (KDT) according to CougarLink was “founded in 1979 by the late William Chaison and is currently Kean University’s resident dance company for more than 30 years.”

Though according to Abdou not many people even knew of the organization’s existence until this year’s pep rally.

“The amount of people that came up to me after we performed or even on campus and would see me and say wow we didn’t even know there was a dance team was crazy,”  Abdou said.

Making a name for KDT was definitely something that Abdou and Stephanie Allan, senior studying graphic design, Director of Public Relations for KDT, and one of the choreographers for KDT’s pep rally dance, wanted to accomplish for the organization this year.

Therefore when KDT was approached to perform in this year’s pep rally, Abdou admits to feeling like she manifested it.

“For me, pep rally was the one landmark that I really wanted us to perform in. Since the summer I’ve been like pep rally pep rally and I think I literally manifested it because once we found out at Kean Day that we were able to do pep rally I literally dropped everything and our focus was pep rally,” Abdou said.

After finding out the news Abdou said she immediately Facetimed Allan, who not only serves on the KDT executive board with her but also happens to be one of her best friends. Abdou and Allan met for the first time their sophomore year when they both were auditioning for another dance team on campus.

“We met at the audition and we ended up getting each other’s information and like we texted each other did you make the team,” Allan said. “Unfortunately we didn’t make it but honestly it was a blessing in disguise because right after we joined KDT, and this is why we’re here today.”

After finding out they would be performing at the pep rally on Kean Day, a club fair that happens every year on campus, that left only 5 weeks for the girls to search for music, come up with a whole dance routine, teach it, order costumes, and make sure the dance looked clean.

For this to happen it required an audition process and extra practice.

In the end, only 16 girls out of 50 were selected to dance in the pep rally. They explained that the reason for having an audition process was to one ensure that they had a small dedicated group of girls who would give it their all and two they explained that due to the small amount of time that they were given, teaching a smaller group of girls would be easier than teaching a larger group.

“Everything leading up to the pep rally everyone was included though. It was never pep rally and then the team it’s we are a team but these are the only girls performing during pep rally but everybody goes to everything, everybody is included, everybody is welcomed, everybody gets a uniform, everybody gets a pom, we are a team and we welcome everybody and we actually mean it,” said Abdou.

Once the final group of girls was selected it was crunch time. In order to make sure that the dance would be done in time for the pep rally the girls explained how they had to add in extra practices.

They said that Thursday’s normal practice time was extended by an hour and they added Wednesday night practices which were from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. though according to Allan, they never actually would end on time.

“Whenever we would have practice we would never leave on time or early. We would always stay an extra hour or an extra half an hour… and we’re really grateful for everybody because they didn’t really have to stay after they could have left but they wanted to stay and they honestly helped us grow as a team,” said Allan.

Before the girls knew it, it was Oct. 15 and the time was 6 p.m., meaning that they would be performing in seven minutes. When asked if they were nervous the day of the pep rally they both spattered a yes.

“Hell yeah, I was so nervous! I was like sweating it was bad. It’s crazy cause at practice I wasn’t nervous at all I was like oh I’ll be fine and then the day of the pep rally came and was like oh bleep,” said Allan.

Before running onto the field to make their big debut Abdou explained that not only did she have to calm herself down but she also had to calm down the girls on the team before they began their performance.

“And I obviously was making sure that the girls were ok cause a lot of them were stressed as well, some of their families were late, and some of them had other things going on so I was telling them to listen, we have to put all of this behind us cause we’ve been preparing for this for so long, so you only get one shot at it, it’s due or die and you have to just leave it out there,” said Abdou.

When the clock struck 6:07 p.m. the girls danced their hearts out and what was left behind was a glass slipper of pride and recognition.

“I’m telling you the feedback we’ve been getting is insane! I keep walking around the campus and people are like oh weren’t you a part of the pep rally? And people would be like wow I watched you on YouTube or we watched you on Instagram or we watched you in person and were like wow that’s crazy because everything happened so fast and so many people enjoyed it, it was amazing,” said Allan.

When asked to rate their performance on a scale of 1-10, 1 being bad 10 being the best, they both agreed that the performance was a 10 out of 10.

“People were on point, together, ripples, formations, attitudes, smiles, energy, it all went together and I don’t know how because every practice someone is always a little off but this time literally everybody was on point and that was all we needed,” said Abdou.

In the end, Abdou and Allan wanted to make it clear how thankful they were for everyone who helped in making their vision come to life.

“I just wanted to say how proud I am of everybody on the team because from the beginning everybody put in so much dedication and support in each other as I’ve never seen a group of girls who actually support each other and care and just show up wanting to be there and wanting this for all of us, it was a vision we put out there and we fulfilled the vision,” said Abdou.

Now that KDT has been able to put itself out there they are hopeful for what the future has in store for them.

“Hopefully we get more opportunities through this… and now that more people know us on campus I see us doing amazing things. I’m excited, this is just the beginning!” said Allan.

You can watch KDT’s pep rally on performance through the link provided in their Instagram (keandancetheatre) bio.

Disclaimer: Helmes is KDT’s Director of Public Relations.

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