Most students at LSU identify the Tiger Girls dance team with basketball games at the PMAC, but the team spent its winter break perfecting a routine that won a national championship. The Tiger Girls won the Hip Hop National Championship on Jan. 17, at the Universal Cheerleading Association’s national championship at the Walt Disney Resort in Orlando, Fla. Sixteen teams from universities around the country were vying for the hip-hop title, but the Tiger Girls kept true to their motto, ‘Undeniable,’ and finished at the head of the class even though the team was without its captain for the championship. Kristen Davis, communication studies senior, injured her knee three weeks before the competition and had to watch her teammates perform without her. Davis said she was disappointed she couldn’t participate in the competition but still played a vital role in keeping the dancers positive and making ’14 people look as one.’ Denise Dicharry-Galjour, Tiger Girls coach and former captain of the squad, said it was a ‘huge motivation’ for her young team to win the championship in part for their injured leader. The team of 19 dancers has 11 freshmen. Dicharry-Galjour said the best memory from the event was when second place was announced, and it wasn’t LSU. ‘Before every practice ends, we all get together and say a prayer,’ said Dicharry-Galjour. ‘Before the final, we had all the girls visualize another team being announced in second place. It ended up coming true – there’s no greater feeling than hearing second place announced, and it’s not you.’ Davis echoed Dicharry-Galjour. Last year, the Tiger Girls finished in second place after ‘one of the dancers fell out of the routine.’ Davis said the feeling she had in second place last year served as motivation. When the team heard the Memphis announced as the second-place team, Davis said the team had to hide its excitement out of respect for the Memphis team. ‘But we were ecstatic,’ Davis said. ‘We are the first team ever from LSU to get first place in [hip-hop].’ The Tiger Girls also finished in sixth place out of 14 teams in the jazz competition. Dicharry-Galjour said she was satisfied with the sixth place finish as well because the competition from around the country was stout.
The team spent an equal amount of time on both the jazz and hip-hop routines. Most of their performances focus more on energizing the crowd rather than the technical aspects of dancing. That presented a welcome challenge to Dicharry-Galjour and assistant coach Alisha Andrepont. The coaches choreographed both the hip-hop and jazz routines. They forged their working relationship from their time together on the Tiger Girls dance team. ‘[Andrepont] and I share a lot of goals and ideas for the Tiger Girls,’ Dicharry-Galjour said. The Tiger Girls were created to support the athletic teams, and Dicharry-Galjour said that is still their first priority. But she said going to nationals was ‘definitely a perk.’ ‘It was fun to show off our talent instead of being on the sidelines and cheering on other teams,’ she said. — Contact Luke Johnson at [email protected]