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Picture Supply: Jesus Ramirez / UCLA Athletics
Replace, Feb. 10: A earlier model of this text didn’t credit score Hallie Mossett for her choreography contributions and work on viral routines from 2018 and 2020. This submit has been up to date to replicate her contributions.
Not all ground routines in NCAA gymnastics go viral, although they need to (perhaps I am biased). Many who have garnered large consideration lately come from UCLA. As an example, there was Hallie Mossett’s 2017 Beyoncé routine, then Katelyn Ohashi’s for the next two years — and Mossett truly had a hand in creating Ohashi’s 2018 routine as a UCLA undergraduate assistant coach and choreographer that 12 months (she now works as an assistant coach and choreographer at Long Island University). In 2020, there was that foreboding performance from Gracie Kramer, which showcased Mossett’s choreography together with that of present UCLA choreographer and volunteer assistant coach BJ Das.
That is Das’s second 12 months with UCLA, and since her recruitment for the 2020 season, the skilled dancer and choreographer has lent her imaginative and prescient to the college’s electrical, dance-party ground performances. Living proof: Nia Dennis‘s show-stopping routines in 2020 and 2021. The method of piecing collectively the right strikes, Das stated, appears to be like totally different for every gymnast.
It begins with the proper music. “The music is a large a part of it for me as a result of that is the place to begin of how I can construct a theme or a personality or a mode of dance that they wish to incorporate into their routine,” Das advised POPSUGAR. She’ll take the gymnasts’ enter under consideration as nicely after which reduce the tracks herself or have a producer combine them.
Subsequent, Das begins the artistic means of choreographing the routines. She’ll map out strikes herself, or she’ll schedule a session with the gymnast assigned to a specific routine, play the music, and “simply dance round and see what naturally comes out,” she defined. Generally the choreography even evolves because the season attracts close to.
In actual fact, Das stated that, on account of restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic main as much as UCLA’s 2021 season, just a few of the routines already debuted have been completed on the final minute, proper earlier than the crew’s first competitors (I advised her that Dennis’s routine going viral at once certainly proved she’s doing one thing proper). Plus, there are nonetheless extra routine debuts to come back. Finally, “I wish to mix their personalities with the way in which that they transfer,” she stated. And, she depends on the gymnasts to deliver their A recreation. “I count on them to place in a whole lot of work, and so they do, which I am actually grateful for.”
Das competed in Division I gymnastics on the College of Washington till a career-ending achilles damage her sophomore 12 months. She at all times felt like she had a knack for dancing as a gymnast. “On my crew, I used to be the person who favored to make up routines only for enjoyable or simply after I would have playdates with associates,” Das recalled of her childhood. She additionally regularly helped different athletes create choreography for his or her ground and beam routines. Going into faculty, Das struggled with elbow points and wasn’t cleared to coach ground till her sophomore 12 months, the identical 12 months she needed to depart the game behind. However, she was in control of placing collectively her personal ground routine then (her coach particularly inspired her to).
Das, who grew up watching MTV and Janet Jackson tour DVDs, stated she did not significantly immerse herself within the craft of dance till age 20, and it appeared as if she was taking part in catch-up when she moved to LA at 23. “I actually felt new at it, and I needed to work twice as exhausting to get to the place I wished to be,” she stated. Since, she’s danced on stage with artists like Beyoncé and Usher, and her favourite job — and first large gig — was touring with “Sk8er Boi” singer Avril Lavigne. Her choreography credit embrace the Emmy Awards and The Masked Singer, and he or she significantly loved engaged on just a few episodes of the Netflix collection GLOW (she additionally lended her artistic imaginative and prescient to a spectacular intro video for UCLA this season).
Being a former gymnast, Das stated, helps her compose routines. Her information means she will construction a routine to make room for the tumbling, jumps, leaps, and different expertise which are required parts. She spent one season choreographing for the gymnastics crew on the College of Utah however famous that her function with UCLA has developed into one thing extra. She feels at house.
Das has change into a mentor. “I like with the ability to construct relationships with individuals over an extended period of time,” she stated. “In comparison with what I am used to within the dance business, it is good to have some consistency. I similar to the life-coaching side of it, and the crew atmosphere matches my persona. I hadn’t actually found that earlier than coming to UCLA.”
Picture Supply: Don Liebig / UCLA Images
Whereas Chris Waller changed legendary head coach Valorie Kondos Field, in any other case referred to as “Miss Val,” on the finish of the 2019 season, Das assumed Kondos Subject’s duties as routine choreographer. Kondos Subject, nonetheless, is at all times there to offer Das steerage, particularly with regard to working with explicit athletes.
It is by no means Das’s aim to have her routines take the web by storm. Earlier than she joined the employees as a volunteer assistant coach, she recalled watching Ohashi’s performances go viral to the purpose the place the previous UCLA Bruin transformed into a full-blown celebrity. “I assumed it was actually cool that she was getting a chance to use her voice and go on totally different reveals and share who she is and shed some mild on the game of gymnastics,” Das stated, including that she did not count on to recreate that momentum with routines she labored on herself at UCLA.
Das additionally agreed that many performances deserve the highlight as a result of selection, she stated, is essential. Translation: it isn’t simply the enjoyable routines set to standard songs that ought to be acknowledged as really nice. Classical routines — and ones across gymnastics disciplines, too — warrant recognition. “I believe gymnastics deserves mainstream consideration,” Das acknowledged. “I do not know how you can accomplish that, however perhaps this can be a begin, or it is opening the door and welcoming extra individuals to benefit from the sport.”
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