Although there may be many different types of sports that we enjoy watching, one that tends to capture our attention regularly is gymnastics. Sure, it may not get as much press-time as football or baseball, but when you are talking about someone as talented ad UCLA’s Nia Dennis, it is something worth paying attention to.
On January 23, Dennis was back on the floor with a routine set to music by Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé, Missy Elliott, Soulja Boy, Megan Thee Stallion, Tupac Shakur, and other Black artists. The leaps were amazing and the tumbles kept us on the edge of our seat.
Dennis wanted to accomplish a few things with this routine. Not only did she want to wow the judges, which she did, but she also wanted to celebrate Black culture and honor her father. In the end, you could tell that the judges were just as happy with the performance as we were because they gave her a score of 9.950.
UCLA Gymnastics went on Twitter to share a video of the performance, saying: “This is what #blackexcellence looks like.”
Ever since the video was uploaded, it has been getting comments, likes, and shares by the thousands. This includes attention from Simone Biles and Katelyn Ohashi, other gymnasts, and Missy Elliot.
Dennis left a comment about her own performance, saying it reflected what she was as a woman and she wanted to incorporate her culture into the routine. She summed things up, saying: “wanted to have a dance party because that’s my personality, and of course I had to shout out LA because we out here, UCLA.”