This month has been a whirlwind of activities and work to keep up with. Besides preparing for midterm exams and attending events for my sorority, the dance team that I am a part of, Kuumba Beatz, has been preparing for our first performance that we have coming up at Midnight Madness. This is one of my favorite events to perform at since almost all of the LMU student body attends each year – I love to feed off the high pace energy in the room.
Midnight Madness is the event that Athletics and ASLMU puts on each year to kick off the LMU basketball season. Students and faculty pack the gym in Gersten Pavilion. The event really boosts school spirit, as it is a great way to get the students excited about the upcoming season.
Members of the men’s and women’s basketball teams are introduced, some games are played with audience interaction and pep talks from the players and coaches are given, but what I love to watch most is the dancing from the different athletic teams and of course the different dance crews!
Madness is a great way to introduce ourselves to the incoming freshman or any LMU students that have not heard of Kuumba before, and also the dance crews have their own unique style about them so watching each one is a treat. My team Kuumba Beatz has been preparing for this since the second week of classes. We meet twice a week late at night and either learn new choreography or spend our rehearsal time perfecting what we have already learned. The payoff in the end is so rewarding once we perform our set in front of the whole LMU student body and hear the cheers from the crowd once we finish our piece.
Some of you are probably thinking “Why are there dancers at an Athletics event for basketball?” I thought the same thing my freshman year when I performed at my first Madness. But it completely makes sense and is what I think embodies the spirit of LMU. All of the organizations on campus want to see one another succeed and do well, and we support each other along the way. That is the thing I love about LMU, everything and everyone is connected in some kind of way and we all share the communal bond and pride of being an LMU Lion.
For Madness we support the basketball team and Athletics by performing at their events, and they help out us and the other dance crews by allowing us to share our artistry with the LMU student body. They also sponsor our event “LMU’s Best Dance Crew” that we host second semester. This event is exclusively for all the dance crews on campus and everybody brings their A-game to the table.
If you love to watch high energy performances and want to support your local dance crews and athletics teams on campus, then I would highly encourage coming out and supporting your fellow Lions! Midnight Madness this year is October 23 and you do not want to miss it. For Future Lions out there, we hope you will check us out – and maybe even join us – when you arrive on campus!