After dancing together for the past several months, the Idaho State University Bengal Dancers’ hard work paid off when they won second place in the Division I Team Performance at the NDA National Competition in Daytona Beach, Florida.

The team recently arrived home in Pocatello with a trophy in hand.

Not only did they place second in the preliminary rounds for Team Performance during the competition held April 10-13, but they also held their place and even improved their score in the finals.

“We’ve been competing for years and placed all over but consistently have been fourth,” said ISU Bengal Dancers Head Coach Kolissa Manchan. “Our goal has been to get into the top three, so to place second is incredible.”

The team has been working hard for years, and each year they’ve improved little by little. Manchan said they’ve worked harder this season than ever before, and they’re so proud of their accomplishments.

In dance competitions, judges give feedback sheets from the prelims for the teams to look over for their final performance. Manchan said a lot of teams move around from their prelims place to their place in the finals, but the girls looked at the judges’ comments, corrected their mistakes and came back with even more energy in the final round of the competition.

She said, “We had kids with injuries, just tired bodies, and the fact they could come back stronger and pull it off was amazing.”

A win like this takes preparation, and the Bengal Dancers are no stranger to the pre-competition training. They practice for three hours, three days a week and do four days of workouts and weight training per week. Coach Manchan said it’s something they’ve implemented this year to be more competitive and keep up the girls’ endurance.

Even more impressive, the dancers are full time students at ISU and attend all the football and basketball games to perform on top of all their training. Manchan said they begin learning their routines in the fall and work them all year with final cleaning in the beginning of the spring semester.

Coach Manchan said this is a special group of dancers, and their competitive spirit and commitment to the team is the reason they were able to pull of this huge win.

“This is a year where I’ve had everyone on the same page, they all wanted to be there, work hard, and perform well,” Manchan said. “This is a really special group.”

The dancers missed a placement in hip hop by a small margin, but still gave their best performance yet. The competition in Daytona was fierce, and different per category.

Lots of the Bengals are well versed in jazz and pom dancing, which helped them in the overall team performance.

The reaction when the team score was announced was absolute insanity. They announce the scores from lowest to highest, so the team knew they had to be above the scores being announced in prelims to make it to the finals (top seven teams). The team got a score of 91.27 in the prelims and topped it with a 91.95 in the finals. Manchan said there was an initial shock, followed by pure excitement.

“Our dance team’s remarkable second place finish at nationals embodies the spirit of excellence and dedication that defines the athletes in our spirit program,” said Idaho State University Athletic Director Pauline Thiros. “Their achievement not only brings pride to our institution but inspires our university community. Their hard work and talent is to be appreciated.”

It’s clear the ISU athletics department as well as the university as a whole feels the pride brought upon by the dance team’s accomplishment.

Coach Manchan says this win will hopefully bring in more recruitment and interest in dancing for ISU. Over half of the current team (23 dancers total) are local individuals, whom the team relies on to keep their numbers up. However, she said wins like these can help out-of-state students be drawn to ISU to push themselves in dance.

“We want to keep growing, we feel it’s very possible to win that national championship trophy and we hope to continue bringing in those like-minded athletes who want to compete at a high level,” Manchan said.

The Bengal Dance Team has their tryouts for next season at the end of next month on May 24 and 25. If you’re interested in joining this competitive spirit squad, please register online at isu.edu/bengaldancers/tryouts and follow them on Facebook, facebook.com/idahostatedanceteam.