I am by no means a dance professional and stopped dancing in the 5th grade, so please take this with a grain of salt. The UDA College happened a few weeks ago now, but here are my opinions I know you all love and agree with all of my opinions. ;) In this article, I will be covering the dance sections: Jazz, Pom, and Hip Hop. I will be going over the top three teams in each category; however, I am only covering Division 1A. All scores I am posting are from the official Varsity website and I am comparing the raw scores and the final performances. Each team competes at prelims and not everyone makes it to the semifinals and the same goes for finals.
Jazz
| Place | School | Score |
| 1 | Ohio State University | 102.15 |
| 2 | University of Minnesota | 101.5167 |
| 3 | University of Michigan | 98.5 |
Ohio State had an incredible piece, it was definitely one that was hard to follow. Compared to their iconic performance last year I think this year was less iconic. There were points that are memorable but, it was still really good. I LOVED their costumes. They had black full-bodysuits and red arm sleeves. Honestly, I think their costumes contributed to their points. They definitely used the red arms to their advantage because it gave a pop of color. However, a focus on the arms is also hard to work with and I think it showed how technical they were.
Minnesota had a decent routine, again not as memorable as last year. Definitely not a favorite of mine, if I’m being honest (I know a controversial opinion). I did enjoy their use of a prop (rose) and how only one of the girls wore a white dress to stand out in her solo performance. It honestly gave me dance mom’s vibes. Like the girl in the white dress would be Chloe though, idk just vibes with that one. Minnesota tends to be very technical with its dances. Like how last year they did like one million pirouettes. Also, shoutout to Mathew, the only boy on the team, his acting at the end was really good.
The University of Michigan pulling in a 3rd place win this year makes my little Ann Arbor heart happy. I will admit, I had to watch their performance to write this because I don’t remember seeing it on social media all that much. However, after the watch, I did enjoy their dance. There was definitely lots of emotion to the dance and was fun to watch. I’m not a huge fan of the costumes and I think they are a little bland, but it does go with the choreography. The music sounds a little eerie, but that seemed to be a theme this year I fear. The ending of the dance did feel very powerful in a spiritual way.
Pom
| Place | School | Score |
| 1 | University of Minnesota | 103.4 |
| 2 | Ohio State University | 102.3833 |
| 3 | University of Tennessee | 101.7667 |
Minnesota’s Pom costumes this year gave me robot vibes. It reminded me of the satisfaction Just Dance character (this may be an extremely niche thought/vibe). The whole routine was robot vibes even with the techno music. There was a point in the routine where they turned to no music for a solid two eight-counts (basically for the non-dancers that’s extremely hard and impressive). The way their music was setting up for the dance I think made it that much better. I don’t think they should’ve gotten first, but definitely a close second.
Ohio State’s pom music sounded very high school pom to me. It was a lot of songs remixed together with their team mentioned a few times. I understand the nostalgic effect. However, I thought the routine in itself was AMAZING (which is hard for me to admit because I am a Michigan girl through and through). In the end, their Poms turned into nunchucks, and I have no words. Still, almost a month later, I am left speechless. They did have good technique and blah blah blah. I think going along with their “nostalgic” music, they kept a good basic OSU uniform. It seemed a little game-day-esque to me, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing as it went with their theme.
Honestly, Tennessee was basic this year. Again, I had to look up their routine because I didn’t see it floating around social media. Nothing really stood out to me. They had the same kind of music as Ohio State and the same with the uniforms. Idk, it was fine, I guess.
Hip Hop
| Place | School | Score |
| 1 | University of Nevada-Las Vegas | 102.65 |
| 2 | San Diego State University | 100.3833 |
| 3 | University of Central Florida | 100.0333 |
The University of Nevada-Las Vegas (UNLV) was amazing. I loved seeing more than just one or two male dancers. I would say their team was almost split between boys and girls, which is not popular. I also LOVED their costumes. It was like this red denim outfit that consisted of red denim pants, a white sleeveless top, and a red denim vest with UNLV on the back in white graffiti. The beginning, starting with them pulsing almost like a heart, was pretty cool, and all the tricks and ripples were a crowd favorite (me; I’m the crowd in this situation). I personally love a good ripple. They also did the cool box thing with their hands (idk how to describe it, but iykyk). They were good, but I needed them to be great. First, I think it may be a stretch for them, but it was really good.
San Diego State. No words. ONE OF MY FAVORITES THIS YEAR. Now, I may be biased because they did a routine to Rap God by Eminem, and as I said earlier, I am a Michigan girl (Eminem is from Detroit in case you didn’t know, but I’m sure you did). At first glance, I thought the outfits looked funny. Like the first impression, I thought the backward hat looked like the baseball hats on Mii characters. The ending they had with the head nod to the back to show off the hat, OH EM GEE. Honestly like I said, I have no words; the routine was just amazing, and I recommend looking it up and watching because I don’t even know how to describe the masterpiece they put on.
Central Florida gave the performance I was expecting from LSU. So I’m like happy that I saw something similar. I liked the ponytail whip towards the beginning. I also liked the separation within the costumes. They had these long-sleeve white crop tops with black mesh peeking out the bottom and white pants, so I liked the separation of skin between the tops and bottoms. There was lots of chest popping and body rolls. The headstands were cool, very Amon-Ra St. Brown of them. I really liked the way they took off the long-sleeve shirts and used them as props. At one point they covered their eyes and it was lowkey seductive, tbh pop off. To put the cherry on top, they then did a mic drop WITH THE T-SHIRT.
For Hip Hop, I think it definitely should have been San Diego State first, Central Florida second, and UNLV third. This is just my opinion, though.