Omega Dance Company looks forward to a new year as they welcome new dancers, practice new routines and set their sights on a better season.
This year, the group will be lead by Melissa Meyer, junior business major from Lubbock, Heather Johnston, junior kinesiology major from Houston, and Lauren Lundblade, senior speech pathology major from Southlake.
“I’m excited about getting to know people better and really build as a community, not only as friends, but as accountability partners,” Johnston said. “I’m looking forward to being able to help each other spiritually and just grow dancing and with God.”
This year, Omega will be performing in the fall at the homecoming parade and the annual culture show, but their big show will be in the spring.
“We have auditions every semester, so we’re constantly getting new people,” Lundblade said. “The reason we do it every semester is we know that people’s schedules change and we want people to be able to be in it in the spring, if they’re too busy in the fall. Members may leave for a semester, and come back so it’s constantly changing.”
This fall is no stranger to change with four new dancers; there are now have 11 dancers in the group.
“I think a lot of people come to ACU thinking that they’re going to be done dancing, but they don’t know that there’s an opportunity here to dance and there didn’t used to be,” Lundblade said. “I think it’s awesome that there’s not only the opportunity for people to keep dancing but it’s an opportunity to fuse your faith and dance and use it as a form of praise, which is not something that you don’t get to do at any other university that I know of.”
With their mission statement claiming ‘Omega seeks to glorify God by creating community, educating others and praising His name through dance,’ the women have done nothing short of that in each practice.
“The mission statement summarizes everything really well,” Johnston said. “What we do is creating community and just everything we do for God. At least that’s how it is for me.”
The dance group takes their mission seriously and integrates it into their practices.
“We started writing everyone’s names on the board and you pick a name and put a dot next to it and, throughout practice, you’re thinking of words of affirmation to give that person,” Lundblade said. “At the end, you meet with your person and ask for prayer requests and tell them something good you saw in their dancing.”
The dance team has also begun taking time at the end of practice to turn off all the lights and play a worship song so people can lay down and pray, or just dance or worship in their own way.
While the women have different dances planned, the main event of the year, and the time when their skills come through the most, is at their spring show when they perform eight to nine dances in different styles.
