Going into her senior year for Elon University’s dance team, Olivia Ferranola said she would love to achieve a first-place finish in next year’s hip-hop and pom categories. However, she said that she doesn’t want competition to be the team’s only measure of success.
She said she hopes everyone can show enough growth to the point where they will be able to make strong adjustments from last year.
“If it does happen, that would mean the absolute world,” Ferranola said. “I think it’s 100% possible and it just takes more willingness to grow and adapt each year. I do believe that even if we don’t reach our goals of first place, we still will have won in our minds because we made those adjustments.”
Even with plenty of success at nationals, Elon University’s dance team is always looking for ways to elevate their performance. Coach Elly Dirks said she expects the team to sustain a positive mentality, citing that as an opportunity for the team to be even better than the previous year.
“As coaches, me and my coaching staff are looking at how we can improve,” Dirks said. “We expect our athletes to have that same mindset of looking into last year and asking, ‘What can I do next year to be better as a dancer.’”
That mindset has paid off as Elon has regularly finished within the top three of both the hip-hop category and the pom category of Nationals over the last three years. This past season, they finished second in the hip-hop category for the third straight year, and improved from third to second in the pom category.
Ferranola said the process to get to nationals begins during the camp and preseason. She noted that it’s important for members to establish a positive rapport, not just amongst each other but also with incoming freshmen.
“That all starts from the preseason, and really establishing those relationships with our new girls is what sets the tone,” Ferranola said. “They’re the ones that need to feel the most ready to go with all of us.”
For Ferranola, team camaraderie has been an essential since her freshman year. She said it was helpful to have experienced dancers guide her toward becoming the dancer she is now. Now that Ferranola is one of the upperclassmen, she said she hopes to be the same type of mentor as her teammates when she first began.
“It was really cool to learn from everyone and see the impact that my captains had on the team,” Ferranola said. “As one of the upperclassmen now on the team, I really try hard to make those relationships with girls.”
Dirks said it’s been remarkable to see how far Ferranola and fellow senior Bella Marrone have progressed since their freshman years. She said she believes both of them have become completely different dancers from when they first started.
When they joined the team in the fall of 2022, Dirks said they were a bit nervous to perform for a roster that just won the hip-hop category. Now, she is impressed by their work ethic both as leaders and dancers.
“It’s been very cool to see them get more confident as only dancers, but as leaders and individuals,” Dirks said. “They’ve become more comfortable with knowing that nobody’s going to be perfect, and just continuing to work hard to be the best they can be.”
Going into this season, Ferranola said she knows she can’t expect everything to work out exactly the way it did last year — and that it’s going to take time for everyone to perform together. She said it’s important to know each person’s strengths and weaknesses.
“You can’t have the mindset that everything’s gonna be the same,” Ferranola said. “It’s a growing process because each individual comes in with different styles that they present.”
The team will also use certain sports, such as football games, as a chance to figure out what works and what doesn’t work. Dirks said fall events are especially great opportunities for everyone to get an idea of how to work well with each other.
In particular, Elon’s dance team will try certain routines that will maximize everyone’s visual flow and choreographic skills, which are important concepts for a dance team.
“A big part of performing at those games is being able to learn how to work together as a team,” Dirks said.
Asked about any advice for freshmen, Ferranola said she believes they should aim to just be who they are and not have to worry about going out their way to impress the upperclassman.
“The biggest thing is to just be yourself,” Ferranola said. “I feel like they want to have that pressure on themselves to impress us, but they’ll fit in over time. We’ll learn from them and what they bring to the team.”