). Professional dancer and choreographer BJ Das, UCLA's volunteer assistant coach, can take credit for the school's electric, dance-party floor routines since 2020. The process of piecing together the perfect moves, she said, looks different for each gymnast.
It starts with the right music."The music is a huge part of it for me because that's the starting point of how I can build a theme or a character or a style of dance that they want to incorporate into their routine," Das told POPSUGAR. She'll take the gymnasts' input into account as well and then cut the tracks herself or have a producer mix them.
Next, Das begins the creative process of choreographing the routines. She'll map out moves herself, or she'll schedule a session with the gymnast assigned to a particular routine, play the music, and"just dance around and see what naturally comes out," she explained. Sometimes the choreography even evolves as the season draws near.
In fact, Das said that, due to restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic leading up to UCLA's 2021 season, a few of the routines already debuted were finished at the last minute, right before the team's first competition . Plus, there are still more routine debuts to come. Ultimately,"I want to combine their personalities with the way that they move," she said. And, she relies on the gymnasts to bring their A game.
Das competed in Division I gymnastics at the University of Washington until a career-ending achilles injury her sophomore year. She always felt like she had a knack for dancing as a gymnast."On my team, I was the person that liked to make up routines just for fun or just when I would have playdates with friends," Das recalled of her childhood. She also frequently helped other athletes create choreography for their floor and beam routines.
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