A SPOTLIGHT ON UA LITTLE ROCK’S DANCE TEAM

When it comes to boosting team morale and hyping up the student body and basketball game attendees at The Jack Stevens Event Center you can count on the UA Little Rock Dance Team.

They’ve got the moves, grooves, and team spirit. I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing three of the eight ladies who make up the team and am delighted to share a little bit about them.

I first spoke with Maygan Bryant, a journalism major who is a senior this year.

She came to UA Little Rock from Lonoke High School.

When asked about her previous experience as a dancer before coming to dance at UA Little Rock here she informed me that she has been cheering all of her life starting at the tender age of six years old as a “pee wee”.

She also played soccer when she was younger.

This is her fourth year on the team and what she loves most about being on the team is getting to cheer during the game.

She stated that she loves “the team, the crowd, and the players”.

When asked about how she feels about standing the entire game she replied, “I’m used to it from working jobs where you have to stand a lot.”

Maygan says the highlight of her college career on the dance team is when kids who view the dancers as superheroes come to cheer with them during the game.

We conversed about her first two years on the dance team where they had to deal with the effects of covid, how the team had to stand with a distance between them during her freshman year, and how disappointing it was to not be able to go and cheer on the road with the basketball team when they played in the Sunbelt Conference tournament during her sophomore year.

However last year as a junior she was able to experience a little more normalcy with the pep band being able to join the dance team at the games and also being able to travel with the men’s and women’s basketball teams to Pensacola, Florida for the Sunbelt Conference Tournament there.

Besides cheering the teams on during the games, the dance team had a chance to experience Pensacola Beach and go shopping at the mall.

Now in her senior year, she anticipates traveling with the UA Little Rock Dance team, Men and Women’s Basketball teams, and Pep Band to Evansville, Indiana for the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament.

As she is not familiar with the northern part of the country, she stated that she does not know what to expect but is looking forward to experiencing the town while there to cheer and dance for the UA Little

Rock Trojans.

Her future plans after she graduates this year are to pursue a career in radio and as an influencer. You can look her up on Tik Tok and Instagram as @thatssomaygan.

The next UA at Little Rock Dance Team member that I had the pleasure of sitting down with to interview was the lovely Tamara Biddle who is a senior from Texarkana, Arkansas, and is in her fourth year on the team as well as being one of the captains, her co-captain is also her roommate, Maygan Bryant.

Tamara has been athletic since the age of two doing gymnastics up until her sophomore year in high school. She is majoring in Health Education & Promotions and minoring in Biology.

Her plans after graduating this year are while she studies for the MCAT take a gap year before going to medical school.

Tamara is excited about the opportunity to travel up north to Evansville, Indiana.

She remembers how heartbreaking her freshman year was due to covid because the dance team was not able to travel with the Trojan Men and Women’s basketball teams that year, “The men were in first and the women were playing great”.

She however was happy to go to Pensacola, Florida last year. She describes the opportunity for the dance team to go on the road,

“helps us all draw closer”.

Even though sometimes they get on each other’s nerves she says, “at the end of the day, you’re still my sister”.

The third dance team member that I had the pleasure of interviewing was Marygrace Mcafee, who is a sophomore at The University Arkansas at Little Rock, which makes this her second year on the dance team.

She like Maygan Bryant, stated when asked about her background in dance that she has been a cheerleader her whole life but precisely dating back from 6th through 12th grade in addition to a year of gymnastics as well as a year of basketball.

A fun fact is she was on the same basketball team as Tamara Biddle when they were younger with Tamara’s parents as coaches back then.

It’s hard to miss Marygrace on the basketball court because of her big bright smile that consistently beams from her face.

When I mentioned this to her she responded, “I feel that it is important to be expressive”.

Ms. Mcafee, who is from Texarkana, Arkansas is a biology major with chemistry as her minor and a Donaughey Scholar who intends to attend premed school after she graduates.

When asked about how she feels about being on the dance team she replied that “dance is a way of escape” and also that “it’s a second family”.

She reflected on the trip to Pensacola, Florida last school year for the SunBelt Conference along with the UA at Little Rock Pep Band to cheer/dance for the UA at Little Rock Trojans Men and Women Basketball teams, that a lot of bonding took place within the dance team where they also had the opportunity to shop and go to the beach after the games of course.

Before ending her interview we briefly spoke about the upcoming trip to Evansville, Indiana for the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament where our women’s basketball team has proven themselves to be a force to be reckoned with and is at the forefront in the rankings, that she is excited to be going and it’s going to be different.

Finally, she describes her new coach Ms. Brittany Denman as “younger and easy to relate to, she understands and is able to connect with us.”

Well, that’s all folks for now. I hope and look forward to meeting up with the other five dance team members at some point but it was so great to touch base with these three who are definitely a stellar boost to school spirit and morale within our student body representing UA at Little Rock’s sports program. Go Trojans!

BY VAL BELL