Dance Team Competitors Become Comrades

Approximately 130 area dance team girls from the Northern Lake County Conference (NLCC) met at YMCA Camp Duncan in Ingleside recently to participate in a day of team building activities. Dancers from Antioch, Grant, Grayslake Central, Grayslake North, Lakes Community and Wauconda High Schools that typically compete against each other on the dance floor all came together to work on leadership, trust, communication and teamwork skills.

The dancers were intermixed by school and rotated through five stations - Teaming with Tarps, Camp Detectives, Connections, Teams Course and Group Initiatives where they learned to problem solve through verbal and non-verbal communication, listening, trust, leadership and teamwork. They spent the day engaged in numerous activities that included throwing and catching balls bounced creatively off tarps, looking for clues to open locks, crossing "hot lava" as a team, balancing on ropes with the help of spotters, and sharing their school fight songs during group rope activities. One camp counselor summarized the day with the thought, "So, I'm turning enemies into teammates." It was a day that started with awkward quietness among those 130 girls that progressed through, "You look familiar," to, "See you at competition."