Ohio State dance seniors Maddie Smith, Kendall Kropp and Mia Snaidauf pose for a photo inside Ohio Stadium. Credit: Courtesy of Beth Toland
For the past three years, the Ohio State dance team has traveled to Walt Disney World for the Universal Dance Association Collegiate National Championship, each time bringing home at least one title.
Seniors Maddie Smith, Kendall Kropp and Mia Snaidauf participated in each of those championships and dream of bringing home a fifth consecutive title.
That hope wavered when the COVID-19 pandemic halted all athletic activity in the fall.
“I think we felt a little defeated,” Kropp said. “A part of us always stayed a little bit hopeful and we trusted. Our coaches and the athletic department continued supporting us even if it meant not being at other sporting events.”
Smith said the team continued to hold socially distanced practices and lifting sessions with the hope that the UDA would still host nationals in January, but like everything else in the coronavirus era, nothing was promised. However, Ohio State head coach Melissa McGhee lobbied for her team and others across the country to be able to compete.
“Melissa has a very good relationship with UDA and was able to help facilitate conversations with other coaches and come up with ideas to be able to push nationals back and to generate ideas to make it a safe nationals,” Smith said.
McGhee’s advocacy paid off, as the UDA announced that nationals would be held April 27-28 in Orlando, Florida. Once Ohio State gave them clearance to travel, the team quickly got to work preparing their routines.
“I just felt excited to go have that opportunity and compete again and relieved to a certain extent,” Snaidauf said. “We were the first team to ever win nationals for the Ohio State program and potentially the first team to ever get four consecutive national championships, and that would just be the craziest thing ever for a program like us, which is recently on the rise.”
Ohio State began its championship run in 2018, winning both the Pom and Jazz titles, followed by the 2019 Pom and 2020 Jazz championships. The team placed second in both categories in 2017 but is looking to keep the win streak alive this year.
“We really want both again and it’s gonna be hard because everyone else wants both as well,” Smith said. “It’s a lot of trying to compete with ourselves every day and feeling better than we were the day before because we don’t know what the other teams are doing and we can’t control how their dances are gonna look.”
In a normal year, the dancers stay in Columbus over winter break and have intense two-a-day practices before heading off to Florida. This year, the team has described their competition schedule as a marathon rather than a sprint.
“It’s almost a blessing in disguise because we have so much time to ensure that our routines are where we want them to be,” Kropp said. “It allows us a little bit of buffer room in case something comes up.”
Teams across the country have had on-again, off-again seasons, facing travel restrictions, in-house positive tests and cancellations from opponents. Ohio State closely monitored its teams to impede the spread of COVID-19 from state to state.
“We learned from the football and basketball seasons that you never know what’s gonna happen, so if anything we want to remember these practices as good practices and not just forget this year completely,” Smith said. “We still were the Ohio State dance team for a full year regardless of the opportunities that were presented to us.”
Although senior athletes everywhere have missed out on important traditions and festivities, the dancers have adjusted their mindset to gratitude. Rather than mourning their final game in Ohio Stadium or team bonding moments, they’re focusing on the fact that they can compete.
“We did have three great years here, so no matter what happens at the end of the day, even if nationals weren’t to happen, I know that we had the best three years that we could and I can’t say anything wrong about that,” Snaidauf said.
Every year, the team selects a season motto to keep them motivated. The motto this year is “locked in” which symbolizes their commitment to each other amid the chaos of 2021. The dancers believe that if they lock in enough, that fifth consecutive title will be theirs.
“We felt like no matter what is happening outside of our bubble, we need to stay locked into each other and to the team and focus on what we want to get out of this year and reaching our potential,” Kropp said. “There are so many things going on but we can control our actions.”
