On Tuesday, Jan. 28, the Lancer Dancers traveled to Orlando, FL to compete at UDA Nationals, a huge competition for dance teams, for a week. After practicing at a studio in Florida for the first few days, the team began competing on Friday for preliminaries, and then eventually reached Finals on Sunday. 

To ensure readiness for Florida, the Lancer Dancers practiced for multiple days leading up to their final performance in order to clean and perfect their dances. Choreographers came and created dances for the dancers to compete with.

“We put in a lot and a lot of practices and hours,” junior Peyton Humberstone said. “After we learned our dances, we had practice every Wednesday and Thursday and then we also had practices on Friday and Saturday sometimes, and those practices were really long.”

Finals for the competition occurred on Feb. 2, and the Lancer Dancers competed in hip hop early in the morning, followed by jazz later that day. The team earned third place for hip hop and 11th place for jazz.

“After we received our results, we were super proud of ourselves, because we knew we had done everything we could to get our placements,” Humberstone said.

For junior Liv Skiver, the UDA competition added a special touch to her first year competing as a Lancer Dancer. The team getting sent straight to finals for their high-scoring hip hop routine became one of Skiver’s most memorable experiences from the competition.

“The team bonded even more and we did our absolute best out in Florida,” Skiver said. “The division that we compete in is highly competitive for hip hop so to be sent straight through is a great honor.”

For those looking to watch the Lancer Dancers at home, they have two showcases every year in the winter and the spring. The next one will be from April 2-4 at the Carlsbad Arts Center, with performances from Xcalibur, dance classes, Aviara Oaks middle school and X-men, in addition to the Lancer Dancers. 

“We are excited and a little sad because this will be one of the last times dancing as a team this season,” Skiver said. “This competition gave me a lot of memories.”