On New Year’s Eve, Eva Porter (11) focused more on the New Year’s Day ahead than the midnight clock strike. She would dance for the largest audience of her life of almost a million spectators in the heart of London.
Last summer, Porter attended one of the annual varsity United Spirit Association (USA) dance camps with Westview Dance Troupe in Palm Springs for four full days of dance classes. On the final day, Porter won an All American jazz dance audition to participate in London’s New Year’s Day Parade with other Varsity Spirit dancers and performers from around the world.
“I found out [about the parade invitation] after the audition,” Porter said. “I felt pretty good about my performance, but I was still really shocked by the award because normally my nerves get to me and interfere with my performance. As soon as I read the pamphlet for the award, I knew I wanted to do the parade.”
A week before she would leave for London, Porter received her bright red uniform and white and blue poms for the event in the mail. On Dec. 26, she flew to London.
London’s New Year’s Day Parade wasn’t Porter’s first parade. She danced in the La Jolla Christmas Parade with her former dance studio in 2017, 2018, and 2019. However, unlike the Christmas parades where she repeated the same routine annually, London’s New Year’s Parade provided new choreography and a huge audience, creating a very different experience that she said shaped her as a dancer.
“The [La Jolla Christmas Parade] was fun, but we did the same choreography every year, so it got repetitive after three years in a row,” Porter said. “The London experience was a good, new experience because I got to do fresh choreography to the song, ‘Proud Mary’ by Tina Turner. [Dancing in the parade] took away some of the stage fright I have because I most likely won’t face another audience that big again, so I feel more prepared for future performances and confident in my ability to remain calm and focus on my performance.”
The entire trip was planned by the Varsity Spirit company. It offered plenty of time for the dancers and cheerleaders chosen from camps across the country to interact with one another and visit tourist spots.
“[The camps] were put in tour buses for sightseeing for four days,” Porter said. “We saw the Big Ben Tower, the Crown jewels, and a few different museums.”
Porter said the time she spent with her mom made the trip to London most memorable, and that she was glad that her mom could travel with her to support her love of dance.
“The trip to London was most special to me because I got to travel with my mom. I absolutely loved having her with me and being able to experience another culture of the world with one of my best friends. It was very interesting to see the difference between the way we dress, act, and talk in San Diego compared to London.”
Surprisingly, Porter’s favorite view in London wasn’t even above ground. She said she was most excited to be in the busy subway below the city.
“It was my first time being on a subway,” Porter said. “I have just always wanted to go on one before, so it was an experience I really enjoyed even though the subway was packed with people.”
On the sixth day of Porter’s trip, her bus group drove together to the gym in the sports center, where other performance groups were practicing. They spent two hours creating formations of the dancers and cheerleaders, rehearsing, and adding in details to perfect the routine they’d repeat for about an hour and a half while parading through two miles of London.
“Our routine was really fun and upbeat,” Porter said. “It was two minutes long and we repeated it eight times throughout the parade. Between those stopping points, we’d either run or do cheer chants while walking. Sometimes we ran for nearly 10 minutes between performing our ‘Proud Mary’ dance, so it felt longer than it was and required a lot of stamina.”
Despite the endurance required of the performers, Porter said completing the routine’s many layers within the choreography was difficult, especially with the very little rehearsal time that the group spent together before the performance.
“I found doing ripples in the choreography was challenging,” Porter said. “I loved the whole dance though and thought it was very fun. ”
Although some aspects of completing the performance were difficult, Porter said that the group’s shared excitement helped them persevere through the fatigue. The Varsity Spirit dancers and cheerleaders bonded throughout the five days they spent touring London together, which Porter said strengthened the uniformity of their movements.
“I think by spending so much time together, our bond grew closer,” Porter said. “Our friendship improved our cohesion and overall, made our dance look cleaner. It was really fun to meet new people, but it also helped us to dance more as a unit.”
Porter said that being able to parade alongside so many other dancers and cheerleaders showed her that a common love for dance and cheer overcame cultural boundaries.
“It was an amazing experience to see thousands of people lined up in the stands, watching and cheering for us,” Porter said. “I met many different cheerleaders and dancers from across the US, and it was very interesting to hear the different ways people talked and notice little details that differ between each person depending on where they’re from. It really shows how the US is a very special place for its diversity. Millions of people call themselves American, yet are all different and unique in a great way.”
