Weber State dance team wins two national titles and a gold medal for the U.S. national team
It’s been a goal for Weber State’s spirit squad dance coach Erica Williams Jordan to have her team selected to represent the United States at the International Cheer Union World Championships since being hired in 2020.
Jordan helped bring the program a national title in 2021, but Weber State was not selected to represent the United States when the team applied last year; however, this past February, the team received news that it had been chosen, alongside Ohio State, to represent the United States at the world championships. Given the opportunity, Weber State didn’t disappoint, earning a gold medal in the hip-hop category, while also bringing home two Division I national titles in jazz and hip-hop.
“Our theme this year was ‘all-in,’” Jordan said. “In the audition process, I was looking for hungry dancers who were all-in. I ended up picking 15 freshmen, and I think because they were so new, they were ready to buy in right away. From day one, they were ready to do anything I asked them.”
It was a long season for the Weber State spirit squad, which held auditions in May and started summer workouts in June. The long season allowed the team to gain confidence heading into the national championship in early April.
“We really believed that we had something special,” said Weber State team captain Carter Williams. Williams is Jordan’s younger brother and placed in the top six on “So You Think You Can Dance” Season 17. “We knew we were capable of winning nationals and worlds, but our biggest asset heading into nationals was reminding ourselves that we just need to do what we always do.
“That was something we constantly said to each other, ‘Just do what we do, we have nothing to lose and everything to share.’”
Weber State shocked at nationals in the jazz category, posting the highest score of any school in any division with a 98.3429.
The high score even surprised Weber State, since it started really focusing on hip-hop once it found out in February that it was performing its hip-hop routine for the United States. Jordan said the team didn’t run a top-to-bottom run-through of its jazz routine until three weeks before nationals.
“Honestly, jazz kind of took a little bit of the back burner,” said Jordan. “I think when we got to nationals the team was just there to do our job and show our love of dance and each other. After semis, we were ranked the highest team in the competition, so when they walked on for finals I had already started crying because I knew it was going to be something special.”
Weber State followed up its jazz win with another win in hip-hop with a score of 94.57.
With two national titles in hand, Weber State had only one thing left to accomplish — secure a hip-hop international title for the United States.
Jordan won a gold medal for the United States in 2013 when she was on Arizona State’s dance team. She said the experience was something she wanted to share with her team at Weber State.
“I was just a freshman at Arizona State and when we won, I was crying, we got a standing ovation and my team was chanting ‘USA’,” said Jordan. “As a coach, I really wanted that experience for my team. We were already so honored to be picked for the United States national team, but for us to take home gold felt like a magical experience as a coach.”
Weber State fulfilled that hope of winning gold for the U.S. national team, with England taking silver and Mexico taking bronze.
“I was beyond emotional because it was such an honor,” said Williams. “It’s a really cool experience and a testament to us dancers because we don’t always get recognition like that, especially from the country as a whole.
“So, for us to be able to represent our country means so much to us, and to represent something we love so much like dance while winning the gold medal was an unmatched experience.”
