“You have to have good behavior and be very respectful of your teachers in order to be on this team,” Bradley Middle School Dance Teacher Debbie Gresham told Long Creek fifth-graders on Thursday, Jan. 20.

The Bradley boys Dance Crew traveled to Long Creek to get the students interested in joining the middle school dance teams at Bradley next year. After the boys performed, they fielded questions about what it’s like in middle school and whether or not they get nervous when they perform.

Participating in dance can be particularly good for students in middle school, Gresham said, because it is such a difficult age developmentally and socially.

“Dance involves a huge amount of confidence building,” she said. “The students are not afraid to get up in front of their peers.”

And it doesn’t stop there for the Bradley teams. After auditioning in September, the Bradley girls teams took the court before the Charlotte Bobcats basketball game Saturday, Jan. 22, and performed the pre-game show at Time Warner Cable Arena. “We hope to perform at half-time in the future,” Gresham said.