The University of Minnesota Dance Team will defend its title at nationals in Florida

For the University of Minnesota Dance Team, the days leading up to nationals feel like the calm before the storm.

“I feel ready,” senior Taryn Pfeifenberger said during a Monday practice. “We’ve just had three great performances so we just feel ready.”

At the Maturi Pavilion in Minneapolis, Pfeifenberger and 23 other dancers gathered around a television, carefully watching tapes of their latest performance. They noted whether the distance between the dancers should be narrower and where the team should focus on timing.

“We’re not going all out today, we’re just finding the little details that we can really address. Checkpoints throughout our routines, like is our arm bent or straight? How straight is it? Where are our head angles ?,” Pfeifenberger said.

This weekend, she and the team will compete two routines at the Universal Dance Association’s College Cheerleading and Dance Team National Championship in Florida – the most prestigious national dance competition at the collegiate level. The routines are pom and jazz.

They are the reigning national champions in pom and were runner ups in jazz last year. Since 2003, the dance team has won the national team 22 times. This year they focus on storytelling in their routines.

“Our pom this year is really special because it speaks to what it means to be on the University of Minnesota dance team, which I think is really cool and unique because this program has been around for so long and the legacy is, that keeps us going,” Pfeifenberger said.

She also said their jazz routine is dedicated to those who have lost a loved one.

“We’re just paying tribute to those we lost in time. It’s very meaningful,” she said.

The most recent performance the team saw back was at Williams Arena, where the dance team performed to a sold-out crowd of 8,000 last week for their annual “Best of the Best” showcase. According to junior Maggie Fandel, last year’s show had 5,200 spectators.

“As a dancer, it was an incredible feeling just to be surrounded by so much support. But again, it just shows how much growth and recognition dance has gotten. It just really shows the reach that this art form and sport has and it felt unreal,” Fandel said.

Last year, clips of the dance team’s jazz performance at nationals went viral on social media. The videos received millions of views and have put more eyes on their team and dance as a sport.

But the team did not let the attention fade their mission on the floor. Instead, Fandel said they want to use the spotlight to push the sport in a new direction.

“Going into this season, I think we really tried to keep it just trying to improve ourselves and what can we do better. I’m not necessarily trying to top last year, but just trying to do something new , pushing the boundaries, that’s something that I feel like Minnesota is always trying to do. So with the recognition that we got last year, it’s just about us and our culture and what can we do to push the boundaries.” she said.

The goal, of course, is to push for national championship wins in pom and jazz this weekend. But Fandel said the most important thing is to deliver the best routines they can pull off.

“We also want to come out with confidence and like we did our absolute best on the floor, and at the end of the day, all we care about is getting off the floor. We want to go away, see the routines, feel comfortable with what we’re putting out,” she said.

The UDA College Nationals will stream on Varsity TV from 17 January. University of Minnesota competes in jazz preliminaries at 8:49 p.m. Central Time on Friday, January 17, and the semifinals at 11:22. Saturday, January 18. The U’s spirit team also participates.