Dance Battle: Squad Up

Southern University Residential Life Department hosted the first “Leave It On the Floor” stand battle. The battle took place in the student Intramural Rec Center and was home for four fierce, trophy hungry teams on October 21, 2015. Before the dancers could perform on the floor, hundreds of Southern University students filled the gym, anticipating what could be an exciting night to remember. The competition starred four of Southern University’s residential hall teams this year: the Totty Plush Dolls, Shade SOS, UNAP Hot Lightning, and Mumford Boulevard Squad. While the disc jockey spinned tracks to keep the crowd occupied, the master of ceremonies and Southern University’s own Joseph Boykins introduced the first two representative hall dancing teams to floor.
The first battle of the contest put both dance teams to the test in a “back to back” challenge as it featured Shade SOS versus the Totty Plush Dolls. After the coin toss, Totty went first and showed off their graceful moves in the first stage of the three-part battle. SOS struck back with a hard hitting routine and let their presence be known. As the battle raged on as team SOS was named victorious and earned a spot in the finals. The next stand battle performers to compete in the event as scheduled were the UNAP Hot Lightning and the Mumford Boulevard Squad. Mumford won the coin toss and elected to go second in the first of their three-part battle. The two dance teams slugged it out but in the end, Mumford’s creative dance moves and high-flying tricks were too much Hot Lightning to handle.
In the final battle of “Leave It On the Floor”, both winning teams from the first two battles took center stage again to decide who’s taking home the first ever stand battle championship. Boykins let the two teams use a rock, paper, scissors coin toss to see who goes first and SOS took advantage of going second after winning. The battle was a hard fought fight as Mumford dazzled the crowd with their creative move set for the first phase. It was SOS’s turn to shine as they showed that the blue mask was something to fear when invading Mumford’s personal space during the routine with the help of their wolf and “drive by gang”.
After a long gruesome battle between both teams, SOS was crown the first “Leave It On the Floor” stand battle champions. The coach of the winning team, founder of the competition, and Therapeutic Recreation major Onyx Joseph was pleased with the students’ attendance for the event and win for her team.
“Dance is my life and it made me real proud to put on a program that effected so many people and it’s a really good feeling,” said Joseph.
Also 24 year old Residential Coordinator of University Apartments George McCray was a big part putting this program together for the students of the respected residence that perform. According to McCray, Joseph came to him with the idea to give students the chance to showcase their talent in a way that everyone will seldom get a chance to see. McCray says the inspiration behind it all came from the hit TV reality series.
“The event was wonderful and the student surprised me with their routines by how much they practiced. To see the dances come to life on the floor made me excited,” said McCray.
Sophomore Nursing major and a winning member of team SOS, Kelley Carmouche said, “It something different, competitive and I’m glad that my team won.”