What does it take for a college dance team to turn years of hard work into a history-making win? Sacred Heart University’s Division 1 dance team has some answers.
The team won its first-ever national championship in Daytona, Fla. at the National Dance Alliance (NDA) College Nationals. From April 10-12, the team competed against other collegiate-level dance teams in three categories: Hip Hop, Spirit Rally and Jazz.
Source: Contributed by Taylor Maguire, ’25
This year they placed first in Spirit Rally, third in Hip Hop and fifth in Jazz. The dance team continues to make history each year but, most impressively, this year with their first-ever win.
“The nationals journey is very long, but it’s all worth it in the end,” said senior captain Jillian Angeramo. “It can be stressful at times, but overall, it’s so rewarding.”
Reina Van Florke is coming on her sixth season as head coach with support from her assistant coaches, both SHU alumnae, Rielley Coles and Bella Tolomeo.
“We set goals early in the year and had a focused goal on where we wanted to end up at nationals this year,” said Van Florke. “We were pushing ourselves not only physically, but mentally, while at nationals. The team was able to stay extremely focused and not get flustered by last-minute adjustments that needed to be made, no matter how big or small they seemed.”
The team has a roster of 38 dancers, but legally, each dancer is only allowed to compete in up to two routines. This year, Spirit Rally consisted of 29 dancers, Hip Hop had 20 and Jazz had 23.
Costuming is a crucial part of dance. If not done properly, it can affect the uniformity of the team. After Hip Hop prelims on Friday, the team managed to put together a new costume for finals the next morning.
“We were excited about our hiphop costume, but as soon as they walked on the stage, we realized that having two-tone color-blocked pants was a disadvantage,” said Van Florcke. “Several judges made comments about how it affected the cleanliness and staging of our routine, so we did some quick shopping and did what we had to do to have a new look the next day.”
The new look consisted of solid black cargo pants bought from a nearby Target, a maroon long-sleeve that was part of the original costume, and an oversized black t-shirt with a screen-printed Sacred Heart logo.
This year’s Spirit Rally routine consisted of a one-minute pom performance to SHU’s fight song and a one-minute stylized halftime routine to popstar Tate McRae’s “It’s ok I’m ok.” After Spirit Rally prelims, they were in first place, only 0.425 points ahead of second place. This means they had to fight extra hard to stay in first for finals and win the Division 1 Spirit Rally national champion title.
“Going into finals, I was confident in us moving up, or, for Spirit Rally, staying where we were in first, but at the end of the day, dance is so subjective, so you never know,” said Van Florcke.
The team’s score went up by 0.95 points, which kept them in first place at finals, receiving the program’s first-ever national championship.
“Winning a national championship was a surreal experience. We worked so hard for this, and it’s so rewarding to prove ourselves, not only to other teams in our division but also to our athletic community at SHU,” said junior Julia Laspina.
“On the coaching side, we’re really proud of how the team worked together all week, and we’re so happy with the performances that we put on,” said Van Florcke. “For next season, I hope to just ride this momentum and upward trend we’ve been going in.”
