On January 16th, 2026, the University of Minnesota’s dance team debuted their jazz routine at UDA’s 2026 College Nationals at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida. Though being one of the highest scoring teams in the nation, they received lots of backlash from people all over the internet.
Fans were eagerly waiting to see this routine after their last year’s viral performance, “This Women’s Work,” honoring a funeral setting and featuring Ava Wagner, a junior at the university and an internet sensation known for her musicality and hard dance skills. The team’s, along with the competition’s popularity, skyrocketed from the past couple years, enhancing all sorts of fans and attention over the media.
The highly trained dancers performed to the song “Maybe This Time” from the well known musical “Cabaret.” A song about desperately receiving a new hope for a stable relationship after continuously losing, in this case, the Minnesota dancers were hoping to win their division.
Many people on the internet thought this was backhanded towards the competition and its judging since for the past two years, Minnesota has received second place, just so close to first. Some people also noticed that the song and routine may have been a stab to their rival team, The Ohio State University, the ones who have been taking home first.
However, the team did not receive the feedback they were hoping for. Instead many people labeled this routine as “underwhelming” and “sloppy.”
“It’s giving synchronized swimmers to me,” people have said on TikTok along with,“The dancers were absolutely phenomenal all weekend, I think it was just choreo/stylistic things that scored them lower. Honestly, the ending really throws the whole thing off for me.”
This style of jazz was very different for Minnesota, as in past years, they’ve been known for their elegant, beautiful lyrical style. To see this routine, and it also being choreographed by Lauren Busyn and Ava Wagner, two coaches for the dance team, was very risky for the UDA stage.
The biggest thing for the University of Minnesota’s dance team this year was the comparison to the Ohio State University’s dance team, a known competitor for them. For many years, they have been the top two highest scoring teams for the D1A Jazz and Pom categories at UDA. They quickly became fan favorites, almost creating para-social rivalries over the internet between the teams.
More comments on TikTok said, “It was beautiful but I don’t see them beating Ohio,” and “Clean for sure but the choreography just did not match up to Ohio State’s, I think that’s what hurt Minnesota.”
Despite the comments they received, they came home with winning third place for that specific category, and won first place in the D1A Pom category as well.
