Dance Team Nabs Fourth at Nationals

Harvard cannot consistently boast of nationally ranked football, baseball, or basketball teams, but for the second straight year, the campus can welcome home one of the best dance teams in the country.

The Crimson Dance Team, a student-run spirit squad consisting of 12 women, placed fourth in last week’s National Dance Alliance Collegiate Championship, held April 4-5 in Daytona Beach, Fla. The finish was the best in the team’s seven-year existence and bested a strong fifth place showing in last year’s championship.

“I’m really proud of the team this year and of the accomplishments that we have achieved,” said co-captain Maritess F. Panlilio ’02. “Last year’s success really helped us know exactly what it takes to be successful at competition and we took that knowledge and ran with it with this year’s team.”

Using a “medical theme” that included nurse outfits and music like Madonna’s “Fever,” Bon Jovi’s “Bad Medicine,” and Pink’s “You Make Me Sick,” Harvard placed behind traditional powerhouses Towson University and UNC-Charlotte. UMass-Amherst, which entered the final round seeded third with Harvard, managed to squeak by with its final routine to garner a third place finish overall.

Though the dance team turned many heads by again finishing in the tournament’s top five, the road to this year’s competition was far more difficult.

For instance, last year the team sent in a qualifying video that earned them a paid bid—valued at $3,000—to cover transportation and expenses for the tournament.

The team failed to secure a paid bid this year because its video was damaged in the postal system following the disturbances in mail delivery related to the Sept. 11 attacks.

In addition to having to raise more money this year in order to attend the two-day competition, the dance team also arrived unseeded and had to prove itself in the preliminary round. The team was able to place third after the preliminary round despite having to re-choreograph many of the moves mere days before the competition.

“The fact that we overcame all these stumbling blocks makes our fourth place finish really meaningful,” Panlilio said. “Every member of the team can take ownership of our success because it is only through dedication and determination that we made it so far.”

According to team members, preparation for the national tournament was comprehensive and at times grueling, with the dance team sacrificing its spring break to remain in Cambridge for rehearsals and team-building exercises. Team members danced for six hours every day, followed by a team dinner and then an hour of reviewing videotapes of their practices.

“It was a really intense week,” Panlilio said. “Especially difficult when you know that all your friends are down in the Bahamas partying and hanging out at the beach.”

The fourth place effort follows on the heels of last year’s fifth place showing and a twelfth place finish two years ago.

Three seniors will graduate in the spring and the team will lose graduate student Helen Huang, who is also graduting from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. But based on their strong showing, Dance team members said they expect continued contributions from new members and prospective recruits.

“For the graduating members, it was a wonderful way to finish off our collegiate dance team careers after watching the team grow exponentially in our short time at Harvard,” Panlilio said. “And our new members now know how it feels to win and they are hungry to do even better next year.”

CBS Sports will air the National Dance Alliance competition, sponsored by Chick-Fil-A, on April 27 at 2 p.m.

—Staff writer Daniel E. Fernandez can be reached at dfernand@fas.harvard.edu