The dance team is preparing early for its third appearance at Universal Dance Association, also known as UDA, Nationals at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. The team attended its first-ever UDA college training camp at Temple University in early August, months before the prestigious competition held in January.
For the past two years, the team has hosted a UDA instructor on campus to prepare for the season, but this summer provided the dancers with a group training experience.
“It was very different than previous years, but it was really exciting,” senior Sam Dillahunt said. “It was new for everyone on the team.”
The team danced alongside other UDA participants including Villanova University, the University of Delaware, Rutgers University and around 30 other schools.
“It was actually the largest attended UDA camp in history,” senior captain Anna Van Ormer said. “The environment is completely different because you’re surrounded by all these other teams. It’s really motivating to see everybody has the same goal.”
The team learned new sideline, situational game reaction, timeout and halftime routines to perform in the upcoming football season. UDA professionals then evaluated the teams’ performances – Lafayette’s dancers earned the top rank of “superior” for their game day routine.
Sophomore Justine Panten said that away camp provided the opportunity to watch other dancers and learn from their technique.
“I think it’s overall a better learning atmosphere because you get the influence and the inspiration from other teams,” Panten said of the experience.
Outside of routines, the team also participated in drills to improve on fundamental techniques and ensure that every dancer felt comfortable with the skills included in the choreography.
“[It] was a really beneficial experience,” Dillahunt said, noting the “intense” environment created by the number of teams present.
“Learning in large groups was something we had never done before,” she added.
The dancers will continue to balance attending games and perfecting their Nationals routine with new choreography. This football season, game performances will consist largely of routines learned at the training camp, with some personal touches added and a few self-choreographed sideline routines in the mix.
At Nationals, the team will once again compete in Division I Pom, but will no longer be competing in the Hip Hop section.
“I think it’s going to be really helpful for us,” Van Ormer said of the change. “Because we only have one dance to focus on, I think we can get it to look 10 times better than we have in years past.”
For a team that spends a lot of time supporting other Lafayette teams, Universal Dance Association Nationals is an opportunity to compete for themselves.
“That was the most awesome thing that I’ve ever done,” Panten reflected on last year’s competition. “That feeling of the hard work paying off is just so refreshing. We put in months and months of our time and it’s worth it in the end.”