On January 17-19, 2025, the Universal Dance Association (UDA) College Nationals was held at Walt Disney World resort at ESPN Wide World of Sports. Some of the best college dance teams from all over the United States represent their school in this competition.
According to UCSD Recreation, UDA College Nationals is one of the most respected college championships in the country. UDA was introduced in 1980 and has thrived for over 35 years. This event is always held during the weekend of Martin Luther King Day.
In order for college dance teams to qualify for this competition, at least seven dancers must represent their team by attending a UDA camp and must receive a home routine trophy or a “Superior Trophy.”
Colleges usually begin their choreography in August and start their cleaning and preparation process in November and December.
The way this UDA College Nationals works is every college entered into the competition competes in Prelims and after the judges evaluate the scores, certain dances will be asked back to compete again for semi-finals. This process repeats again for finals, each time narrowing down the number of dances competing to be a smaller number.
Some of the top teams who have become well known at UDA College Nationals are University of Minnesota, Ohio State University, Louisiana State University, Michigan State University, University of Miami, and University of Tennessee.
After watching these teams compete in UDA over the years, people start to get to know what these teams have to offer, and young dancers start to look up to them.
WHS sophomore Alexys Valda says, “I really enjoy watching UMiami and LSU’s hip hop, and I love Minnesota’s jazz every year. Especially their turn sequences because it is always so impressive.”
Sophomore Bailey Barousse says, “If I could be on a team, I would probably choose either Minnesota, Ohio, or Umiami.”
The final Division 1A results to conclude the 2025 UDA College Nationals:
Division 1A Jazz Champion: Ohio State University (scored 97.2857)
Division 1A Pom Champion: University of Minnesota (scored 98.4762)
Division 1A Hip Hop Champion: University of Nevada, Las Vegas (scored 97.7619)
These end results caused a lot of controversy between whether people agreed on the final scores or not.
WHS dancer Keniyah Hill says that she agrees with the results of competition and believes that Ohio deserved first place for D1A Jazz and Minnesota deserved first place for D1A Pom.
Valda says, “LSU’s hip hop was one of my favorite dances and I think it deserved higher than sixth place.”
Bailey Barousse states, “I loved OSU’s jazz so much this year and I was glad to see that they won because their dance was very technically challenging and the story was so interesting.”
Whether or not people agree with which dance was the best or not, every fan of UDA College Nationals can agree that all the different dances are incredibly impressive and entertaining, making people excited for the following year’s competition to come.
