By: Rosemary Boeglin <[email protected]>

Rebecca Petersen, a member of Charisma and Coquettes and sophomore, is truly a dance enthusiast in all aspects of the word.

“I have taken dance classes for about seven and a half years at Performer’s Edge Dance Theater,” Petersen said.

Petersen is an active member of the Performer’s Edge competition team as well.

In addition to participating in all of these groups, Petersen enjoys watching others do all the work.

“I consistently watch ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ and sometimes I watch ‘Dancing With the Stars,’” Petersen said.

Sarah Wolff, coach of Coquettes and Charisma, watches both “Dancing with the Stars” and “So You Think You Can Dance.” Wolff said that she is an advocate of having the girls on the team watch those shows. “They have good ideas and we are always looking for new ideas. Styles, too, we’re always looking for that,” Wolff said.

Petersen traveled to Cincinnati, Ohio, to see the season three tour of “So You Think You Can Dance” as a birthday gift to Jennifer Maurer, her friend, fellow dancer and sophomore, and her parents. “My favorite part about the show is watching the different dances that are choreographed for the dancers,” Petersen said.

Mikayla Mandell, member of both Charisma and Coquettes and junior, said that she is one of the lead choreographers of both teams. In addition, she is a competitive dancer and a member of the American International Dance Team.

“We as a team step up to the plate to choreograph then we all decide who will choreograph each dance. It’s a whole effort from everyone,” Mandell said.

Wolff said, “The kids on the team (choreograph the dances). They do all of it, we don’t pay anybody.” She also said that incorporating different styles of dance into the routines gives more variety to the dances and it helps for things to not get boring to the audience.

Seeing the different styles of dance gives the girls valuable, usable ideas according to Wolff. “I think it’s hard (to come up with new ideas). It’s easy to stagnate. You can take ideas and concepts for something new.”

Mandell said that she also thinks that dance shows are a good source of inspiration. “I actually will go online to look at hip-hop routines from years past and steal the choreography,” Mandell said.

“I definitely think the shows have spread a big awareness of how difficult dance is. You need a great memory, physical awareness, and it takes a lot of training to do,” Wolff said. In addition, Wolff said she definitely thinks that the shows have made people more interested in taking dance.

“So You Think You Can Dance” has pronounced its season three winner to be Sabra Johnson, who started dancing at high school age. Host Cat Deeley joins judges Mary Murphy, Nigel Lythgoe, Shane Sparks and Mia Michaels in making the show that, according to Lythgoe and Fox, grew to become one of the most watched shows on television.

Likewise, “Dancing With the Stars” has come to an end pronouncing Helio Castroneves and Julianne Hough the new winners of season five. Judges include Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli alongside hosts Tom Bergeron and Samantha Harris.

Inaba and Tonioli will debut their new show “Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann” on Jan. 7.

“From watching the show, actually, I want to try ballroom, but so far I haven’t been able to,” Petersen said.

According to Wolff the Coquettes and Charisma dance teams perform here, at Girls’ and Boys’ basketball games and from now until the end of January.

Wolff does think that these shows have spread the popularity of dance. She said, “I definitely know people they have sparked interest in.”