2010 UAAP Samsung Cheerdance Competition

This year was all about props, props, props. But UP Pep Squad's minimalistic but comical interpretation of their theme coupled with breathtaking, smooth choreography has indeed topped the FEU Tamaraws Pep Squad's Ninja inspired routine and the overkill done by the pancake skirts and the styrofoam buildings.

This year's cheerdance championship could have been taken again by the Tamaraws. Their stunts were awesome and their signature, breathtaking floor routines are so astounding they could have nailed the 340, 000 pesos with just that. But they chose to overdo the routine by placing dancers inside pancake skirts. Everything was already pointing to the championship grade but the needle pointed somewhere else when the Tamaraws squad had chosen to be OA ("overattired").

The UP Pep Squad's performance is simply just too smooth to take in for everyone we were all left saying and probably shouting "More! More! More!" Despite the distasteful use of the banderitas as dancers' skirts, the Pep Squad has indeed proven that when a marriage of gymnastic skills and stunning choreography happens, championship is just right around the corner.

But kudos to both squads because they were truly, in the real sense of the word, the only ones who have offered something innovative.

I believe that the UP Pep Squad won the championship because of these reasons: 1) the music and the choreography flow smoothly; 2) the physical agility and coordination of the dancers; 3) the pyramids that the UP Pep Squad has shown are far more difficult and "fresher" looking compared to that of the other teams; 4) they need not use gargantuan props in order to send the theme across the audience and the judges, and; 5) the routine, as it was being performed, just gave you chills and made you want to scream the school cheer; and that is simply what the cheerdance routine should do. To cheer up the audience.

Anyhow, here are the winning performances from this year's Samsung Cheerdance Competition.

The UP Pep Squad

The FEU Pep Squad