The Occidental Dance Team (ODT) placed third in the 4-Year College Pom Division II/III category of the United Spirit Association (USA) National Championships Feb. 22. This was the first time ODT competed at the national level in program history, according to co-captain Kenna Mueller (junior). Mueller said the team had been preparing for this competition since October and spent around eight to ten hours each week rehearsing their dance.
“The choreographer came in Oct. 5 and 6 and we worked on it all the way up until the day of nationals,” Mueller said. “We came back a week early from winter break and practiced for 8 hours each day, just running it over and over.”
ODT previously attended the SHARP competition in spring of 2024, but Mueller said nationals requires an entirely different level of preparation.
“We’re up against teams that have coaches, people that got recruited for dance and people that are majoring in dance,” Mueller said. “Here, we’re fully self-run.”
Ariella Trost (first year) said she had competed at USA events while in high school, but that competing as a collegiate team felt different.
“The atmosphere was more communal,” Trost said. “You’re talking to teams more than you would before. It was also interesting to not be there with a coach. We got to make decisions as a team which I liked a lot.”
Grace Sullivan (sophomore) said she had also been to the same competition before. According to Sullivan, not having a coach this time made a big difference.
“I learned a lot about the behind the scenes and what goes on that I never got to see because my coach always did it, and also all the preparation that goes into it,” Sullivan said.
According to Mueller, the administrative work and logistics are the responsibility of the captains, which placed a lot of pressure on them.
“Imposter syndrome definitely hits when you’re up against teams with coaches; teams that are really good,” Mueller said. “Every other team had been there before. We had no idea what we were doing but we knew we deserved to be there.”
Kaylee Nguyen (sophomore) said being entirely self-run brought the team even closer together.
“It was a little more stressful because there was more responsibility on our shoulders that we had to navigate,” Nguyen said. “I also felt a closer connection with everyone because we had to go through that by ourselves.”
According to Mueller, the team felt extremely proud of themselves just for dancing on the stage at preliminaries. Mueller said they did not care about the results.
“There’s an instant replay backstage, so when we watched the video I was sobbing because I was just so happy,” Mueller said. “All of the hard work was for that moment.”
Nguyen said finding out they had qualified for the finals was mind-blowing, and that the team jumped up when their name was called.
“It felt good that we came all this way,” Nguyen said. “We put in all this work and it felt like we had earned that moment. People don’t see how much work goes into a two–minute dance even though we drill it over and over to make it look effortless.”
ODT ended up coming home with a third place trophy – which only motivated them to work harder next year, according to Trost.
“Third is amazing, but how can we get to first?” Trost said. “Going into [the competition] this year we all thought, ‘Let’s just go and see what happens.’ Now we know we can do it, so what else can we do?”
Sullivan said the team is planning to return to the competition next year, hopefully performing two routines instead of one.
“We’re learning from this year how to manage time more efficiently in order to be able to compete with two dances and place with both of them,” Sullivan said.
Mueller said she hopes this achievement will bring more recognition to the team on campus and get more people to join.
“I want Oxy to know about us, and I think they finally do,” Mueller said. “We competed in DII/DIII and we did everything ourselves. The overall goal is to announce that we’re here and we’re here to stay.”
Contact Izzy Shotwell at shotwell@oxy.edu
