In her first dance recital, senior Camille Sturdivant said she was scared to perform and cried when her teacher brought her out on the stage. In the fall, Sturdivant will dance for the Golden Girls men’s squad, the highest level dance squad at the University of Missouri.  

“I wanted to keep dancing in college but not necessarily on a competitive team, and I wanted to do a lot with the school and still working with the band,” Sturdivant said. “Golden Girls popped out on my radar and I have been interested since sophomore year and so I just have been preparing myself for tryouts and attending clinics.”

As the lone senior on this year’s Dazzler dance team, Sturdivant is the leader for the underclassmen on the team.  Junior and captain Caitlyn Krebs said Sturdivant making Golden Girls has led to the fact that making a college dance team is an achievable process.

“Camille set the standard that it is totally possible to reach your goal making a college team as long as you put in the effort and hard work into what team you want to make,” Krebs said.

For Sturdivant, she said being independent has led to her improving and growing as a dancer in part to putting her name out for herself when it came to college decision time.

“I have just taken it on my own to prepare for tryouts by myself and investigate and talk to to Golden Girls that were on the team just to learn how to better prepare myself for audition,” Sturdivant said.

Krebs said the Dazzlers have been impacted positively by the leadership displayed by Sturdivant.

“She can help anyone with everything you need anytime, she’s always willing to lend a helping hand and for that we’re all really grateful to have her on the team,” Krebs said.

Sturdivant said she put her best effort into the tryouts, which were April 27-28.

“I felt pretty good and that I had learned the material very well and was able to perform to the best of my ability,” Sturdivant said. “So I knew that whether I had made the team or not I gave all that I could, and I worked hard. When I made the team I was super excited, I was super blessed and honored to earn this opportunity.”

With graduation coming up in a week, Sturdivant said being a member of Golden Girls will help with the process of transitioning to a large campus.

“I’ll go into the school having the group of girls behind me, girls that I had already become friends with because college is so huge and nobody necessarily knows that many people,” Sturdivant said. “It will be fun to dance at all of the home basketball games and be able to participate with the band and other philanthropy, and volunteer.”