Kayla Nelson
Staff Writer
Months of hard work and dedication brought Benny the Bengal, the Bengal Dancers and the Idaho State University Cheerleaders to several victories at the United Spirit Association Competition.
Benny the Bengal took second place at the United Spirit Association Competition, the Bengal Dancer’s hip-hop group took fifth place among 15 other teams and the jazz group took seventh place among 15 teams.
“It takes a lot of effort, drive and dedication for these girls to be able to stick through the whole year and stay focused,” said Kolissa Manchan, coach of the Bengal Dancers.
Manchan added, “It’s their time to shine and relax and enjoy what they’ve been working on all year to go to nationals.”
Benny put together his own skit and music that represented ISU and its school spirit. He spent months rehearsing and built his own props.
“My job is to make sure he’s branded and correctly representing ISU for years to come,” said ISU Marketing and Promotions Director Kalee Ralphs. “All I did was cut his music he did most the work on his own.”
Benny’s favorite place to shop is Westwood Discount. He gets his outfits from the Deseret Industries and the Salvation Army thrift stores. In addition, Ralphs gets a lot of his outfits in October at Halloween stores.
“He decides almost all the time what he is going to wear,” said Ralphs. “He is very individualistic. Most of the really creative things you see come straight from his mind, he doesn’t need me at all for that.”
The first time Benny went to nationals he, brought home the first-place prize. This year and last year he received second place, but only lost to New Mexico by one-tenth of a point. Part of his job, and how score is kept at nationals, is to entertain and engage the crowd as well as use his stage space efficiently.
The Bengal Dancers have been working on their dance routines since July 2014.
They brought in choreographers in September and October 2014 to help put the routines together for competition.
The Bengal Dancers are one of the top five dance teams in the nation. Each year, their goal is to stay in the top five or improve.
In addition the dancers have been putting on shows at ISU football and basketball games.
All of the girls go to school full time and must maintain a 2.0 GPA in order to stay on the team. They volunteer for community service and hold fundraising events for nationals.
“[Dance] is the longest season for any sport at ISU. It goes July through April and takes a lot of drive,” said Manchan.
The dancers have the option to submit videos or compete at a camp in July. Generally, they opt to compete at the camp.
When they arrive at the United Spirit Association Competition, they compete in preliminaries and then continue through the competition.
The girls compete against two and four-year colleges as well as 1A division colleges.
This year they went to the United Spirit Association Competition and the National Dance Association (NDA). They placed fifth in hip-hop and seventh in jazz at NDA.
“It’s not all just about dance, it’s about friendship and life skills like time management, responsibility and treating people right,” said Manchan.
Tryouts are held each year for the team.
Participants don’t have to have prior experience, but there are certain qualifications to be on the team.
“Every year we always try to work on keeping up school spirit and keeping the name of our team at a high standard we always want to be there to cheer all of our school athletics,” said Manchan.
Sometimes girls who have danced for years do not make the team and girls who have never danced professionally before have.
“I tell everyone who wants to be on the team you never know unless you try,” said Manchan.
Ralphs is also holding open tryouts for Benny.
The date and times are flexible. To set up an audition, students can email Ralphs at ude.usinull@elakppok. She is hoping to have all of the auditions completed by the end of the school year.
