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PROVO -- The Brigham Young University Cougarettes have won their ninth national dance championship, but in a way that nobody saw coming: They took home the title of National Hip Hop Champions.
The team competed at the annual NCA/NDA Collegiate Cheer and Dance Championships April 6-9 in Daytona Beach, Fla. It's the largest of its kind in the world with hundreds of teams competing. The Cougarettes traditionally perform in the Dance Division 1A category but this is the first time the team competed in the Hip Hop category, which was added in 2010.
"Because we're BYU and known as a jazz dance team, nobody even thought we'd be competitive in Hip Hop," said Jodi Maxfield, Artistic Director of the Cougarettes. "It's really fun to come away being recognized as National Hip Hop Champions, because that's something that no one saw coming."
"I just don't think anyone expected the Mormon girls from Utah to bring it like they did," said Cougarettes Dance Captain Brynlee Fielding. "They just see us as technical dancers, but we knew we could do more."
The Cougarettes are categorized as a precision dance team -- what many schools call a drill team -- and perform on the sidelines of BYU football and basketball games, but they're fluid in a wide variety of dance styles and are renowned for their exceptional technique. This not only keeps the team at the top of the competition, it has changed the championship and the genre.
"Well-executed technique is something that we've brought to the table," Maxfield said. "Many of these dance teams do sideline and pom, so a lot of them don't really train in the technical aspects of dance. But it's evolving in that direction, and BYU has actually been a leader in that."
For example, she says, "We're the ones that first put fouette' turns in our routines, or any kind of turn combination, now you have to have that in a routine. We were also the first to do Arabesque Penchee, where you extend the leg and hold it. Now you see many teams try it."
It's this level of excellence that has won the team nine national championships since first appearing in the NDA competition in 1996. The Cougarettes have been National Collegiate Dance Team Champions in 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2010 and now 2011.
The competition is fierce: Every year since 2003 (except 2009 when the Cougarettes did not attend), BYU and the University of Louisville have taken the top two spots in Dance Division 1A.
This year for Dance 1A the Cougarettes performed a stirring, powerful and difficult routine set to a dramatic tango mix. They scored high marks in preliminary competition but in the finals Louisville came out on top, edging out BYU by less than a 10th of a point.
[Everyone] looked at it as, ‘Oh, the BYU girls are going to try and do hip hop.' But we took them all by surprise, and they never saw it coming.
–Artistic Director Jodi Maxfield
"Second place is nothing to feel bad about," Maxfield said. "We loved our routine and we feel that we demonstrated once again that BYU is the epitome of technique and class in the dance competition."
The Cougarettes didn't let the loss get to their heads going into the Hip Hop finals.
"We were disappointed, but I don't think our team's ever been more motivated," Fielding said. "We were driven and weren't going to leave nationals with two second places. We weren't going to let anyone get in the way and stop us from doing what we came to do, and that's win a national title."
"The girls understood that if they really wanted to win Hip Hop they would have to come with all the drive and intensity they could muster, and that's what they did," Maxfield said.
The Cougarettes not only took home the win, they stunned the competition.
"We definitely surprised people," Maxfield said. "They looked at it as, ‘Oh, the BYU girls are going to try and do hip hop.' But we took them all by surprise, and they never saw it coming."
After the performance, Maxfield said, "The whole crowd was going crazy, like, ‘Was that BYU?'"
Even Louisville coach Todd Sharp was in awe. He approached Maxfield after the Cougarettes performed but before the scores were announced. "He shook my hand and said, ‘You deserve it, you earned it, you were better than us and you won,'" Maxfield said.
The Cougarettes closed out the competition with a winning score of 9.775 out of a possible 10, beating rival Louisville and 13 other teams.
"It was so fun to win hip hop the first year of competing because we set a precedent for years to follow, whereas in team dance we already have that reputation," Fielding said.
Beyond the thrill of any victory, the Cougarettes are proud of their legacy in the dance world. They're known as role models for young dancers for not only their skills, but for maintaining high standards and honorably representing Brigham Young University.
"We proved once again that you can compete in any genre of dance, such as hip hop, and do so without crossing any lines," Maxfield said. "Our costuming was tasteful, our choreography was tasteful. We held true to our standards and impressed the judges with our athleticism, our performance quality and our precision."
Fielding and many of the dancers apply this mission in a personal way. "I want our legacy to be that we're outstanding women in all areas of our lives, and I think we proved that at nationals," she said. "We can deal with setbacks and have shown that we will just be positive young women no matter what's thrown our way."
Email: lmaxfield@ksl.com
