A Dancer’s Superbowl: A review of the top three highest placing collegiate dance teams and their performances at UDA nationals

If you saw me holding my phone horizontally with AirPods in, totally in awe of what I was streaming from Jan. 12 to Jan. 14, I was watching the Super Bowl for dancers — UDA college dance team nationals.

I look forward to seeing the drama and the passion that is performed on the Orlando stage every year. As a Varsity dance team member myself, it’s like catnip to me. Throughout this long awaited weekend I’m always glued to my phone at all times — it doesn’t matter if I’m in my bed or walking during passing period.

These are my reactions to the first place dance for division one dance teams in each category — jazz, hip hop and pom.

The Ohio State Jazz

One word to describe this dance: 

Wow.

The Buckeye dance team competed a tear-jerking routine choreographed to the song “My Way” by Frank Sinatra. The story the choreography told throughout the entire dance took my breath away.

A seamlessly executed lift came out of nowhere on the very first note of the song, and left me already in shock. The dancer simply appeared out of nowhere. 

Throughout the dance, the use of their costume pieces was stunning. The girls wore a black sleeveless blazer with a loose, red tie hanging around their neck. About halfway through the routine, the girls gradually started taking off their ties and incorporated them into their dancing.

They looped the tie around their toes and extended into beautiful leg positions. I’ve never seen a college dance team use a prop so seamlessly as the girls nonchalantly slipped the ties on and off their necks.

It was the end however that truly had me speechless.

I could feel the emotion that these dancers emanated into the crowd from 1,268 miles away and snacking on Cheez-Its in between dances at my own dance competition.

The ending involves the girls throwing off their blazers and forming a clump in the center of the stage. Once in the clump, the dancers started slow motion walking towards the audience. But it wasn’t just walking. It was as if I could see what these girls were walking towards.

Ever since the Buckeyes performed their routine at preliminaries on Jan. 13, I have been playing the dance on repeat. I even added “My Way” by Frank Sinatra onto my Spotify playlist.

This dance was easily one of my favorite college dance team routines of all time and I surmise that it will stay that way… until I watch what these dancers do next year at nationals.

LSU Hip Hop

I thought that the LSU dance team couldn’t top their 2023 UDA hip hop routine complete with high heel boots and sunglasses.

I had no idea how wrong I was.

Their Michael-Jackson-themed hip hop routine to “Smooth Criminal” had me attempting an extremely mediocre moonwalk in my very own room.

The Tiger Girls performed with sleek white and silver matching sleeveless blazers and pants and a white hat. Boy, their groovy dance moves gave Michael Jackson himself a run for his money.

Immediately the girls started with their hand clutching their pants and begin the classic heel drops as the song began.

Not only was the dancing in this routine so perfectly placed and dynamic, but the formation changes were a work of art. I have never seen a dance team so effortlessly align in a perfect diagonal formation. As a dancer who has done dozens of dances with diagonal line formations, I can tell you one thing — it is not easy.

Throughout the entire dance, the Tiger Girls were so perfectly in-sync. Even during the parts where the choreography is more groovy and stylized, they all managed to be unique in a very uniform way.

Overall, the team’s cutting edge Michael Jackson choreography combined with the crisp formation changes guaranteed a win for the LSU Tiger Girls. No one even came close.

Minnesota Pom

If anyone ever doubts the University of Minnesota dance team’s ability to perform a pom routine, I’ll be referring them to this routine. The power radiating from the dancers’ poms on the nationals stage absolutely melted my brain.

From the moment their music started, the Minnesota Gophers dance team absolutely dominated the stage. The very first move in the entire dance was a front aerial (a front walkover with no hands). I mean, how much more powerful can you get?

While this pom routine had the classic Minnesota turn sections and the over 180 degree toe touches, this pom dance also incorporated something I’ve never seen in a college pom dance before. They switched the choreography to hip hop halfway through.

The dancers kept poms in their hands, but they changed their posture to conform to swaggy and sassy hip hop choreography.

I thought that the hip hop and pom infused choreography was highly innovative, but at times the popping and locking looked a little messy.

The entire point of a pom routine is for not a toe to be out of place, but with some of the hip hop choreography, the dancers took creative liberties and it looked sloppy.

This dance gave me chills, but the hip hop choreography ultimately felt out of place.