All The Right Moves
The Rainbow Dancers have become as popular as the UH athletic teams they support. On Sunday, a new team of dancers will be chosen during auditions
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“I don’t normally care about technique as long as your attitude looks like you want to learn and can pick things up quickly. So a lot depends on the attitude.”
Tasha Tsukamoto, Ryan Sabado, Kristi Rakta and Chontille Wong
entertain the crowd at the Stan Sheriff Arena
Sabado is going on his third year as the team’s dance adviser and has brought to the program a fresh hip-hop/jazz style that’s in sync with what’s popular today. He also brought with him 12 years of dancing experience and 10 years of teaching experience.
“There was a major change when I took over,” says 28- year-old Sabado. “My first year was very hard because the girls had learned the more old school jazz, and I kind of brought in more musical jazz and more hip-hop.
“This is when hip-hop was coming in headstrong, and the challenging part for me is experimenting with the crowd and the girls to see what works.”
The audition is structured like any other dance audition — it involves a registration, some stretching, learning a dance routine, interviews and rounds of cuts.
“There is no set amount to cut or set amount for the team,” says Nakamura. “It all depends on the audition. For instance, this year we have 16 of them on the team and there’s been years we’ve had up to 20 or as little as 10.
“I would say about 40 to 60 come to try out, and we take anywhere from 10 to 20 people. The other thing is even if you are on the team you still need to re-audition.”
Backgrounds in jazz, ballet, gymnastics, hip-hop and even hula are all welcome. There are even exceptions where someone makes the team with no prior dance training at all.
The Rainbow Dancers warm up in a hallway before a UH basketball game
“Everyone can offer something, so there’s no real criteria,” says Sabado. “I’m more impressed with dancers rather than any quadruple turn or back handspring. I mean, it’s amazing and great to have, but rhythm is very important.”
As adviser, Sabado has big plans for his team, which include going to the Collegiate Dance Competition.
“This next year is when I see what my criteria is going to be, and I’m sort of figuring out what I’m going to do in terms of bringing the team to that level,” says Sabado. “The girls have never competed, and because we would be in highest level to compete it is really a lot of work to get there.”
It seems Sabado has the plan, the drive and the moves to get there — now he just needs the team.
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