Maggie Klee and Brittany Traeger were crying.
Some of their teammates were shouting at the top of their lungs in disbelief.
Others were dogpiling onto the bed in the third floor Ocean Plaza Club Hotel room in Daytona Beach.
“It was mayhem,” Klee, a junior and co-captain of the AU dance team, said. “It was such a huge deal. Everyone was screaming, jumping and hugging each other. I didn’t believe it.”
Moments before, senior Abby Masenheimer relayed a text from her mom, who was still at the Peabody Auditorium where the team performed. The message was incredible: the Eagles earned a spot in the final round at the National Dance Alliance Collegiate Championships for the first time in program history.
“When she told us, I was just like, this is unreal,” co-captain Traeger, a junior, said. “‘This is not real. Don’t kid with me.’ There was lots of jumping around and screaming.”
Traeger wasn’t alone in her disbelief. AU Dance Team Head Coach Rachel Southall also paused and even waited to see written proof that the Eagles made it, which prompted three different celebrations since she wasn’t convinced the first two times.
But AU did make it, just like they did set a school-record by scoring an 8.878 out of 10 in that preliminary round.
‘Misery business’
Although the dance team didn’t begin practicing their choreography until the end of winter break in January, Southall began planning out their routine over a year ago, just a day after they competed in nationals last year.
She was sitting on the beach in Florida when a song popped up on her iPod that immediately caught her attention.
“I picked it because it is fast paced and powerful and has a strong female voice,” Southall said of Paramore’s “Misery Business.” “That’s important so that the girls can relate to it and project the power and energy when they perform.”
The song also represented how Southall envisioned her squad: fierce, strong, driven, self-motivated and self-confident.
The only problem was the team’s reaction when they first saw Southall’s choreography to the song.
“‘How am I going to dance this fast? Can I even move this fast?’” Traeger said she remembered thinking when her coach first unveiled the team’s nationals routine. “It was definitely a fierce song though, and that characterizes our team.”
Southall said she introduced the up-tempo dance because of her squad’s impressive performances during halftimes at basketball games. That’s when she said she first realized that the group of girls she had could be special, a sentiment her co-captains shared.
“That was the time where I really thought this team [was] going to be good this year because in the past, we would get in front of an audience and be a little nervous,” Southall said. “This year they were more confident and they just killed it. That’s when I thought we had the potential to be better than we had ever been before.”
Despite the initial challenges of the new routine, the squad eventually got it down and did an excellent job of executing it. They carried a lot of confidence into nationals in their ability and attribute that to their close bond on and off the dance floor.
“Outside of dance, a lot of us feed off each other’s opinions, whether it’s the best way to apply for an internship or how to prioritize something,” Traeger said. “Being together on those kinds of things just bring you together outside of the team so when you’re inside practice, you know the girls and it’s so personal.”
Showtime
The dance team departed for nationals April 9, two days before they were set to perform. As soon as they arrived for practice April 10, they encountered an intimidating setting: other squads practicing everywhere they looked, whether it was warm ups on the sidewalks or high-flying acrobatics in the grass area.
Yet this year’s team would not be intimidated. Since this was the first season that the majority of the girls returned, they had veteran leadership. They knew how to respond to tough situations.
The team was scheduled to perform at 8:30 a.m. the next day and had to wake up at 5:30 to prepare together. Once ready, they anxiously awaited their turn backstage along with Southall and freshman Megan Buchanan, who was recovering from knee surgery.
After a couple of minutes onstage, they finished their performance.
“With the circumstances, I think it was the best time we ever performed the routine,” Traeger said. “We had never been on that stage, we had never been on that floor and we’ve never been in front of that audience with those lights.”
Since the Eagles competed in the Division I Open category, 20 other squads had to perform in the preliminary round, so the girls went to support the AU cheer team in its competition and eventually went back to their hotel to review the tape of their performance.
Typically, Southall tells the team where they placed. But because their division was so big and they left the site of the competition, it was up to Masenheimer’s mom to relay the results.
“It was unbelievable and unexpected because of the timing,” Southall said. “Usually I would tell them so they would brace for it but this happened so spontaneously.”
Although they had to do their routine once more in the final round of 12 teams, the squad already felt like they were victorious. In that second performance the next day, they went on to earn a score of 8.873 and finished ninth overall to secure their spot in AU history and send their lone senior off like she could have never dreamed of.
“It was amazing … it was perfect,” Masenheimer said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better last year.”
Full disclosure: Student Life Editor Samantha Hogan is on the AU dance team.
jpaunil@theeagleonline.com
