Less than two months from their performance at the National Dance Alliance Collegiate National Championship, the Elon University dance team has one thing in mind: topping last year’s record-breaking performance.
Captain and senior Bella Marrone remembers the moment clearly when she realized their pom routine at the 2025 national competition secured their highest placement in program history.
“Being on stage and hearing the third place team get called and knowing it wasn’t us was just insane,” Marrone said. “We’ve never gotten higher than third place, so just knowing that all our work we put in was worth it and we were being recognized for all of our accomplishments was so incredible.”
After placing second, Marrone said the team is even more motivated now to get first place.
“Ever since then, we’ve just been hungrier and hungrier and working harder every practice,” Marrone said. “With our team and the talent and the confidence and our family dynamic, we are going to go out there and do the best we can. I have a really good feeling about this year.”
NDA Nationals will take place from April 8 to 11 at Daytona Beach, Florida.
The Elon dance team will be competing in the pom and hip hop categories in Division I. Each routine is scored on a variety of criteria, including choreography, staging, authenticity and uniformity.
Head coach Elly Dirks is in her seventh season with the team after graduating from Elon in 2019. Throughout her time as coach, she said she’s worked to build confidence in her dancers.
“If you don’t believe it, there’s no way you’re going to convince judges or anybody else that you deserve to have that title,” Dirks said. “But if you have the fire from within, nothing can stop you.”
Over the next seven weeks, the dance team will transition from practicing gameday dances to tweaking and revising their routines for nationals.
Dirks choreographed this year’s pom routine and said it holds true to traditional pom styles but has a unique flair she hasn’t seen other teams do. Dirks said she and her dancers have worked to make a name for themselves at the national stage.
“When I first took over the team, we felt like we were this little school amongst all these bigger teams that we were competing against,” Dirks said. “I think that we've really reframed the mindset of this team through our success, but also even before our success is that, you know, we are supposed to stand there with the rest of them, and not only that, we can be better than the rest of them.”
Beyond confidence, Marrone said the close bond between dancers pushes them to perform better.
“Everyone has the same end goal, and everyone wants to be here and I think that just brings such a positive and energetic dynamic to the team,” Barrone said. “Every single person’s doing it for the person next to them, and they want it just as bad as everyone else.”
The dance team will host a nationals showcase at 7 p.m. April 6 in Schar Center. The send-off event is free for attendees and open to all who wish to attend.