Since 2018 began, the UPRM Dance Team has left its mark and has truly let the world know how much they have to offer. They kicked off the year with the UDA competition in Orlando (Florida), where they presented four routines at a national and international level. They won for three of these; 4th place for Double Poms (Andrea Mercado and Edwin Acevedo), 3rd place for Group Hip Hop and 2nd place for Double Hip Hop (Enrique Ortiz and Ricardo Vázquez).
Let’s take a look at the members of this amazing team who constantly put the UPRM name in the stars.
Cristina Roman
Roman is well into her second year of college as well as in the UPRM Dance Team. She studies Animal Science and Pre-vet which point to her ultimate goal in life: to be a vet! She has been a dancer for 7 years, her favorite genre of dance is Lyrical Contemporary and her hobby is going to the beach.
Gabriela I. Maldonado Marty
Gabriela is a junior year, Biology major who auditioned and was accepted into the UPRM dance team on her second year at Colegio. She is part of the Mu Alpha Phi sorority, one of the many sorority sisters that have been part of the dance team. Her dream job is to be an ophthalmologist, who can also travel a lot. She has been dancing for 6 years and she has discovered her favorite medium to dance is Contemporary and Modern Dance. Gabriela is also one of the few bookworms of the team.
Andrea N. Mercado
Andrea transferred from USC a year ago and upon admittance to UPRM, she auditioned for the dance team! She was immediately accepted and is now on her senior year as an English major. Another bookworm and beach bum of the team, Andrea dreams of becoming a lawyer. She’s been dancing for 16 years and her favorite genres are jazz and lyrical jazz.
Joshuan Vázquez Vázquez
One of this year’s freshmen, Joshuan studies Accounting, but his dream is more focused on dancing. He’s been dancing for a little over 7 years and even though he loves all types of dance, his love is for classical ballet. After all, his dream is to “never stop dancing,” and to be able to live doing his art by dancing in a company and leave his legacy wherever life takes him. A clear “fiebrú” of dance, his hobby is to rehearse.
Lyann Rodríguez
Lyann is an Agriculture freshman who has been dancing for 5 years. Her favorite dance genre is Contemporary and her hobbies are: being a bookworm and painting. Also, her goal in life is to have a small farm and a beach house, and to be able to travel the world, even though she admits it’s “completely cliché.”
William López Rodríguez
A Kinesiology major, this freshman has been dancing for 4 and a half years and his favorite thing to dance is Hip Hop. Apart from dancing, he loves listening to music and his dream is to graduate from Colegio and continue growing as a dancer.
Angélica Del Mar González Laró
This fourth-year Chemical Engineering major has been a dancer all her life. After 17 years dancing, her favorite dance genres are Jazz and Contemporary. Apart from this passion, Angélica affirms how she plays around with photography, when she’s not being a bookworm or taking free online courses, or being a beach bum. Her dreams in life are to experience being an exchange student, find an environmental internship, and to graduate from Colegio. Furthermore, she aspires to be accepted into a graduate school to study Environmental Engineering and to travel the world.
Keynalee Valentín
The contemporary dancer Keynalee Valentin is another one of the chameleonesque dance team members. She’s a sophomore Biology major and after finishing her studies, Keyna dreams about being an orthodontist and being able to help people through her work. Keyna has spent 14 years dancing and cultivating her other talents. Her hobbies include singing, drawing, acting, cooking, and reading.
Angelie Teresa Nieves Jiménez
Another Mu Alpha Phi sorority girl. Angelie is a sophomore Physics major who dreams of being a meteorologist. She has been dancing for 15 years, discovering that her favorite type of dance is Lyrical. Apart from dancing, her hobbies include movie-watching, baking, and shopping.
Natalia L. Rosa Padilla
An Animal Science/Pre-vet major, Natalia joined the dance team as a sophomore at Colegio and is now in her third year. She’s been dancing for 10 years, she was part of the Abanderadas before the Dance team, and loves Hip Hop. Her goal is to be a vet and loves spending time with the people she loves as well as being a beach bum! It seems like in this dance team, everyone is a beach lover.
Edwin Joel Acevedo
Edwin has been dancing for 11 years and now studies Education while dancing his favorite genre every day: Jazz. His dream is to get his Bachelor’s degree and find a job in his field. Edwin is easily the leader of the Dance Team beach bums; given how he goes every weekend to the beach. #Goals
Karlyann González Feliciano
Karlyann is a fourth-year Civil Engineering major, focused on Topography & Surveying (Agrimensura). She’s one of the two Salsa dancers of the team, who has developed herself as a dancer fluent in jazz and hip hop. Karlyann admits how she’s “been dancing since [she] was born,” but professionally started dancing 11 years ago. As one of the dancing beach bums, she aspires to “graduate from the best university: UPRM,” revalidate as a surveyor and find work in that field and entering the military.
Liz Andrea García
Liz is one of the fresh-women of this year’s dance team! She studies Physics ad has been dancing for 7 years, and classical ballet is her favorite genre. The bookworm dreams of finding a profession where she can do and work at what she loves as well as being able to continue dancing forever.
Enrique N. Ortiz León
Enrique is the other salsa dancer of the team, as well as one of the team captains. He studies Nursing and is in his fourth year. After 10 years dancing, Enrique dreams of getting his master’s degree and go on to achieve his PhD, “without ever letting die my talent to dance.” The captain’s hobbies include watching series, and go out with family and friends.
Ricardo L. Vázquez
Ricardo, the Urban/Street/Hip Hop dancer studies AgroNegocios and is on his third year at Colegio. He started dancing at 16 years of age, but had a gap year when he was a freshman at UPRM. His goal is to be an agricultural entrepreneur in the swine industry. Ricardo’s hobbies include running, watching Netflix, dancing, and being a beach bum.
Angélica M Gonzalez Martinez
Angélica, aka the gymnast of the dance team. She’s a fourth year Industrial Microbiology major and has been dancing for 11 years. Her favorite dance genre is Hip Hop, although she has gotten her splits and fouettes #onpoint! Angélica’s hobby is dancing and she dreams of graduating from Colegio and studying Medicine.
Andrea E. Andújar Oyola
Andrea’s another freshie, who studies Industrial Engineering and has been dancing for ten years. Her favorite genre is Classical ballet and her hobbies include exercising, reading, drawing, and watching series. Andrea’s goals are to finish her Bachelors and Master studies with a good GPA and to actually be an engineer. She also aspires to be part of any project that will better prepare her for a professional future, and that will help her find employment in a prestigious industry. Lastly, Andrea wants to continue her dancing career, grow as a dancer and gather enough knowledge that will help her teach dance.
Paulina Hernández Nieves
The freshman ballet dancer studies Agricultural Sciences. Paulina loves to design, draw and paint in her free time, as well as do crossfit and run. She aspires to finish her studies and become a vet. If that doesn’t stick, Paulina has a plan B, which would be to study fashion design. But, she still wants to do a minor of some sort in that area, and whenever she would retire from being a Vet, she’d open up an atelier. Paulina also wants to continue dancing, teach and even have her own academy.
Emollie Delisse García
The other captain of the team, she studies Biology and is in her fourth year. After she graduates next year, she plans on continuing her dance career. Her next goal is to audition to work as a dancer on the Royal Caribbean. Emollie has been dancing since she was 3 years old, and she’s discovered that her favorite styles are ballet and jazz. As a hobby, Emollie teaches at a school in Hormigueros. But when she has free time, she prefers spending it at the movies.
Lorena Isabel Hernández
Lorena has been dancing for 17 years and her love has always been ballet. She auditioned for the dance team on her second year at Colegio and she’s now in her fourth year as a Biology major. Lorena’s hobby is easily going out to eat at different places. Her main goal is to graduate and be a successful doctor. She opened up to me and described how since she was a child, her mom worked at hospitals and she would pass hours playing doctor with the other doctors. Seeing patients get better inspired her to pursue that same future in helping people.
Keily Soler
The dancing freshman is a Microbiology major and has been dancing for 13 years. Her favorite type of dance is ballet and she dreams of working in a zoo. Also, her hobby is working out.
Gloribel De Jesús
The sixth-year Linguistics major, who’s also doing minors in Arts and Writing & Communication is working on her Teacher Preparation Program as well. Gloribel’s favorite dance type is ballet, claiming that the second and third place go to Contemporary and Jazz. She plans on getting Aprodanza’s teaching certification, do her masters on Fine Arts in Dance and later on, she aspires to open her own dance school. Gloribel was a late bloomer in dance; she started dancing when she was 16 years old. She explains that her “progress has been the result of effort, discipline and passion.” When she’s not dancing, she spends her time drawing, reading, writing, working out “and stretching…a lot.”