Some colleges are on the map thanks to their NCAA programs: the University of Notre Dame and Clemson University have their football teams, and Duke University and Villanova University have their basketball teams. You get the idea. What does Hofstra University have? A multi-national-and-world-title-bearing dance team, one who double-titled this year alone.
The 27-member Hofstra Dance Team brought home the D1 Game Day and D1 Jazz National gold medals, as well as the D1 Pom silver medal, in January. If the Hofstra Physical Fitness Center, where the dance team practices, had rafters to hang banners, they’d be at the point of near overflow.
According to head coach Kelly Olsen-Leon, this competitive season was unique unlike years past. Yes, the dancers always want to push themselves to be their best selves, but they got a head start as early as September 2024 when the team went to Canada to represent the United States of America in the 2024 Pan-American Championships.
“Fully prepping a nationals routine in September and so this year was totally different in that sense because usually September is usually just getting ready for game day and campus life and starting to work on our routines,” Olsen-Leon said. “It took a complete pause because September was fully competition mode.”
“I think we came into nationals knowing that this year was special,” said senior and co-captain Hailey DiCio. “We were all super hungry rather than being nervous or hesitant.”
Once the winter intersession period rolled around, right after finals week, the team upped the ante.
“The real magic happens after Christmas is over,” Olsen-Leon said. “This year it was 19 days of intercession which is when [the dancers] are just fully committed to the dance team – no other obligations – and that’s when our routines come to life.”
In the coming days and weeks, the team is taking its victory lap: designing the rings, getting a trophy presentation at a basketball game (the same way other D1 program on Hofstra’s campus gets paraded when they win a conference title), organizing their banquet, the whole shebang.
But before the spring semester even started, the team was already watching films and picking apart their moves. Olsen-Leon found that out accidentally when she sent out a questionnaire to the team ahead of the spring semester, asking them all what they were most excited about. The overwhelming majority was for the chance to get back into the lab and perfect different parts of their routine, whatever dancers felt they personally fell short in.
“Just the natural motivation of them, so many of them are like, ‘I can’t wait to work on the things that I know are my weaknesses so I can come back next year even stronger,’” Olsen-Leon said. “I think that’s why our program is where we are. It’s like we don’t even need to, as coaches, force that; that’s just them knowing they have goals. Even though we accomplished something so amazing this year, we want to do it again.”
“The moments where we get excited are we get a glimpse of the feeling of being proud is where we get that motivation from,” DiCio provided insight on. “It could be something as small as the coaches saying ‘that looked good’ and we’re jumping up and down, so excited.”
