While some people enjoy dancing alone in their room with the music blasting, the Carolina Club Dance allows students to dance with their friends at the Strom Thurmond Wellness and Fitness Center each week.
The Carolina Club Dance, formerly known as Project Dance, allows members who love to dance, teach and perform practice their skills and learn or choreograph different combinations each week.
On top of being a creative outlet, Carolina Club Dance is a laid-back setting for anyone who is interested in dancing.
The Media and Marketing Chair Emma Roof has been involved in Carolina Club Dance for the past five semesters.
Roof, a third-year public health student, said the club has many talented members who push each other to be better dancers, while still avoiding a negatively competitive atmosphere.
Club President Rachel Vanecek said things have been different because of the pandemic. As of now, the club can only have 15 people dancing in-person at a time, but members are doing their best to make things work.
“We’ve been using Garnet Gate so that people can RSVP for audition times and posting videos of the combos on our Instagram,” Vanecek, a fourth-year finance and marketing student, said.
The club held both in-person and online audition sessions to make it more accommodating for those who need to attend virtually.
First-year pharmaceutical sciences student Logan Acker was in quarantine during auditions in the fall.
“I did it in my backyard. They sent out like, audition combos for you to learn. And so I just sent them a video of it," Acker said.
In a typical year, Vanecek said the club performs at Spurs and Struts in the fall and at Relay for Life and Dance Marathon in the spring. During its showcases, the club typically performs a hip-hop piece and a contemporary jazz piece.
“Hip-hop pieces are some of our favorite ones to perform. That’s usually like a big group dance, and they’re always really long and really tiring, but it's really fun,” Roof said.
Dance Chair Catherine DeLair, a second-year operations and supply chain student, has been involved in Carolina Club Dance since her first semester at USC. To her, the organization is a "relaxed and stress-free" environment.
According to DeLair, her previous dance experiences were exhausting, but the club gives her something to look forward to.
Everyone in Carolina Club Dance eventually gets to choreograph their own dance combination to teach other members, Roof said. She said it’s an opportunity for the dancers to experience different teaching and dancing styles.
Second-year broadcast journalism student MK Osborn loves the combinations members learn. She said one of her favorite performances was a dance to "Blinding Lights" by The Weeknd.
Carolina Club Dance is a place for students to let go and relax through their passion for dancing. Once a month, the club hosts open dance classes that students with any level of experience can attend.