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As a member of the Syracuse University Dance Team, Caitlin Browne has been cheering on SU’s basketball and football teams while keeping the audience’s spirits high. But now, Browne is looking forward to the dance team itself competing.

“We obviously love performing at games, but nationals is where we get to show what we really do and what we train for all year,” Browne said. “We don’t just support all of the other teams at this school, we actually have something … just for our own.”

On Tuesday, the team left for Daytona, Florida, where it will compete in semifinals at the National Dance Alliance Collegiate Dance competition and hopefully move on to finals. Last year, SU placed higher than it ever had before — ninth. This year, the team’s aiming for top five, and has a new hip-hop routine to show off alongside its existing jazz routine.

If the team makes finals, it will perform at Daytona Beach’s Bandshell amphitheater, a famous dance venue on the oceanfront, which Alex Lund, captain of the hip-hop team, called a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Last year’s hip-hop competition inspired the team to try one this year.

“We were like, we have to do this. We’re so capable of this,” Lund said. “And look how much fun they’re having up there.”

College national competitions differ from regular dance competitions because of their supportive environment, Lund said. Gonzales said the members of SU’s team have a really strong bond that she thinks will be visible onstage, but other colleges in the competition have the same passion and work ethic.

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“If people are still dancing in college, they obviously love it and want to be there so bad,” Lund said. “Anytime that you’re not onstage or practicing, every single team is in the audience cheering for every single other team.”

When she was in high school, freshman Melissa Gonzales was on a dance team with more than 80 members, so she said being on a tight-knit team is a new, welcome experience. SU’s team has just 16 members.

“It’s a whole different experience being with girls who chose to be on this team, rather than parents wanting you to be on your high school team,” Gonzales said.

Lund said that many of the team members didn’t have hip-hop experience before this season. The team’s coach, Marco Cruz, was Lund’s dance coach growing up in San Luis Obispo, California. She referred him to the team’s manager and he came out to Syracuse throughout the school year to work on the routine.

“It was such a full circle moment for me,” Lund said. “He was my biggest mentor growing up.”

As the jazz captain, Bowne works closely with the jazz choreographer, Kelly Larkin. Though weather issues affected some of the team’s practices, Bowne is proud of how the routine turned out.

Larkin said the team learns its performances for the games before the school year starts, then begins working on competition routines in early fall. The overlap between basketball season and competition season is stressful, but nationals is still the team’s main focus, Larkin said.

Gonzales had never done competitive hip-hop before this year, but said that it was an uplifting experience working with Cruz. There was a steep learning curve, but his motivation made it a step-by-step, easy process.

While Gonzales hopes the team makes finals, she’s excited to put their hard work to use, grow from last year and bring more attention to the team’s competition season. Before last year, she said she thought nobody at SU knew the team did anything besides football and basketball games.

“Nationals season is our season,” Gonzales said. “We are our own cheerleaders.”

Published on April 4, 2023 at 11:35 pm