PUBLISHED ON September 2, 2026
Ella Gautreaux '30
Over the summer, the Archbishop Chapelle Hi-Steppers went to DTU Camp in Mobile, Alabama. This is a tradition among the Hi-Steppers dance team that helps them grow as dancers. This camp was held at the University of Southern Alabama from June 15-17.
DTU Camp isn’t just something the Hi-Steppers go to; they are constantly preparing for this camp. The girls spend the summer getting their home routine ready for the first day of camp. This year, their home routine was to the song “Walking in Memphis” by Marc Cohn. This dance was choreographed by their officers, and let's just say they did an amazing job. Watching the dance, you can really feel the emotion from every single girl on the team.
Although it is a lot of hard work going up to camp, once they are there, it is a really fun experience. There are many unique things about DTU camp, like they learn fun dance styles like tango, cha cha, foxtrot, and other fun styles like that. Each dancer also learns a dance that they will be evaluated on, which is one of the most stressful parts, according to me.
Third-year member Rylee Ford said this, “Camp is one of my favorite parts of being a Hi-Stepper. It really helps us all grow as dancers and as a team.” DTU Camp isn’t just about becoming a better dancer, but also closer as a team. There are many events during camp for team bonding, like team bonding night where you dress up for a theme, like Y2K. Bonding as a team really helps us dance better all together on the floor because we are all friends.
Archbishop Chapelle’s dance team really benefits from everything DTU Camp has to offer. Not only is there team bonding, fun classes, learning dances, but also technique classes. These really help with turns, leaps, and jumps. Technique can really help your team because your coaches can continue to use the technique to continue the team's journey of getting better. Back to the team learning dances. Every member can choose what style they want; maybe there's jazz or pom you want to do. This choice will determine what dance you will be doing on the final day of camp for evaluations. Evaluation is when you do the dance as well as you can for the staff, and they will evaluate your dancing.
After all day dancing, the Hi-Steppers finally reach the last day, which is also showcase day. This is where they showcase everything they learned, which is a gameday dance, evaluation dance, and their team showcase dance. They have worked hard on all of these dances, correcting and cleaning the dances during their practice time. For the gameday routine that's just for fun, but the evaluation dance and showcase dance will be evaluated, then given a maroon, black, or gray pin. Maroon being the best and gray being the worst. After the Hi-Steppers performed their showcase routine, they got a maroon pin, and everyone got a maroon pin for their choice evaluations dance. They ended camp on a great note, and also learned many other lessons.
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