This fall, the University of Minnesota Duluth Dance Team shared their new game day look with us, and we recently caught up with them again after they competed at NDA Championships this month! The team had an amazing performance at college nationals, finishing runner up in Division II Team Performance!

Finding Inspiration in 'Revolution'

UMD Captain Melanie explained the concept behind their routine this season:

"For our dance this year our theme was queen bee, which turned into the concept of 'revolution.' We had the idea of being fierce and confident women. It was incorporated in our choreography and costumes by adding strong, sharp movements and moments where we could feed off of each other's energy. We added in a lot of team breaths to increase the intensity of our jazz section."

"The costumes have a sassy fierce look to them which completely added to our theme! The music was powerful and emphasized all the movements that we wanted to be strong, and it flowed where we wanted it to be smooth," Melanie said.

The combination of feminine lace and and bold back straps on this custom dance costume definitely portrays the fierce and confident female look they were going for!

Success Without a Coach

Surprisingly, this winning team is not lead by an actual coach, but is instead run by the team themselves. This is impressive considering their success at nationals!

"We don't have a coach so it's difficult to find an outside opinion to let us know what we look like or what we should change," Melanie explains of the challenges.

"Having to handle everything on our own can be really stressful at times, especially being a college student. This adds to our unique quality that we don't have a coach, but we have been top 2 in the nation for the past 5 years AND two-time national champions, so we are very proud of that accomplishment!"

Photo Credit: NDA

Creating a Strong Bond

Captain Melanie shared with us her favorite memory of the season: 

"My favorite memory this year would have to be going from 4th at prelims to 2nd at finals at nationals. A team that has always supported us and been our #1 fans [Tamagawa University] won in our division, so we were really happy for them. We had a really cool moment on stage when all of the other teams left the stage and it was just us and the 1st Place team, we all hugged each other and congratulated each other. You don't see that often so it was a really special moment for both teams. We are hoping NDA was able to capture that moment. Also the fact that we had a brand new team and we all came together and showed off what we had! We are a very proud team!"

"We loved the costumes this year, thank you so much for all of your help!"  Melanie added. Congrats again to this confident and fierce dance team! You girls really are an inspiration to us!