Viking News
Wed, Jan 20, 2010 - [Competitive Dance]
The Grand View University Varsity Dance Team traveled to Orlando, Florida, this past weekend to compete in the Universal Dance Association National Competition. The ladies began practicing in August to prepare for the national competition and held two-a-days for two weeks prior to the contest.

The hard work paid off as the team took home 2nd place in the Open Pom division and 12th place in the open Jazz division. The girls took a jazz routine to "Somebody to Love" and a Pom routine to "Kiss." This year marked a great victory for them when the team qualified for the finals on Saturday after performing their Jazz routine in the semifinals. This is the first time that the GV dance team has performed in the national finals.

"Nationals is something that one would have to experience to understand. The atmosphere, the team-bonding experiences, and the competition are all things that bring success. Our team did a great job of working together and achieving what we came there for. The memories we make will never be forgotten. Personally, I'm proud of the team and I am so glad we ended this season with a bang," said junior Nicole Wells.

"Nationals taught us a lot about confidence. Just because we are a small school doesn't mean we are not good enough. We showed that we deserve to be there with all the other big schools," said senior captain Jayme Ammann.

Dance Team Head Coach Stacie Horton was extremely proud of the teams' representation of Grand View at the national competition.

"The girls' main goal was to make it to finals and they accomplished that. It was the first time that they thought they weren't a tiny dot in the huge sea of colleges and had earned the right to be there," said Horton.

"One of the most amazing things was how we improved from the semis to finals. Following the semifinals, the girls had to practice to work on things that needed improvement. They listened to the coaches and executed what had to be done and improved their score by 32 points in the finals," she added.

The UDA National Competition, featuring the GV Dance Team, will be aired on ESPN in March. More details will be made available on the Grand View web site as they become available.