Dancers in black and gold have been a halftime mainstay on the football field and basketball court for years. Now the dance team can impress in another and much more meaningful realm after returning to competitive form after a long absence.

The Gustavus Dance Team placed third at the 2012 DX AmeriCup National Dance Championship Feb. 25, 2012 at the Minneapolis Convention Center, a crowning achievement for a group that is regaining momentum as they attempt to recapture a competitive edge. A renewed desire to compete will shift the dance team from simply halftime entertainment to a competitive entity.

“We wanted to shape the culture of dance team to be not just performance [based] but competitive at the same time,” Senior Rachel Crowley said. Crowley is the captain and has watched the team grow during her four years as a dancer.

“When I first started there was no discipline on our team,” Crowley said. “If you look back to 2008, let’s just say it wasn’t pretty.”

Despite a rough past the team has progressed under new direction and heightened student motivation, and now are competing at a national level for the first time in recent memory and surprising many, including themselves. The dancers were not aware of their participation in AmeriCup until less than a month before the national competition.

“We had to get ourselves in shape. We practiced anywhere from aerobics rooms to classrooms to the carpet in the hallways because we couldn’t find spaces,” Crowley said.

The diligence has paid off, resulting in the team’s third top-three finish in two years. The Gustie dancers also competed in the St. Thomas Invitational the past two years, finishing as the runner-up in both instances.

At the AmeriCup national competition, Gustavus finished ahead of Augsburg College, and was narrowly edged by UW-Stevens Point and eventual champion Orange Coast College (Calif.).

Such success would not have been possible without a bit of luck. Gustavus typically works at the AmeriCup to supplement funding but due to restructuring of the national dance association that is responsible for the competition, Gustavus was not asked to work and was instead invited to compete free of charge, which was pivotal given the dance team’s organizational status.

“We are not a varsity sport [and therefore] are not funded by anyone but ourselves,” Crowley said. The dance team receives a small annual sum from Student Senate but is mostly strapped for funds, forcing the girls to sew their own costumes in some cases.

While the dance team dreams of becoming a varsity sport one day, their main goal is to continue to grow and compete at a high level.

“I know the girls that are coming up are going to take charge and they know exactly what they want,” Crowley said.

“The way society is now, things are a lot more competitive in general, so we might as well go with the times.”