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There Will Be Costumes

There are a lot of wonderful things to say about UCLA gymnastics.  The very best is that, no matter the situation, it’s always a show and they always commit to that show, a show complete with costumes, characters, motifs, and sometimes even a tragedy.

Yesterday, UCLA hosted the “Meets the Bruins” event.  It’s like an intrasquad, but with more greatness. Other schools show routines.  UCLA unveils performances.  Some people hate that about them.  These people are no fun, and I don’t want you hanging out with them anymore.

No show is complete without a grand entrance:

Come on, they carried her onto the floor.  How can you not love that? 
This routine is completely different than I expected Val to put together for Mattie, but it’s excellent.  It’s a great lesson that spins are choreography rather than something than can be (or should be) placed into a separate category.  We see so many routines that are more like “OK, I did my dance, now I’m going to do my spin.”
“Oops, I almost accidentally did my floor routine in high heels.”  #uclagymproblems

Can we convince Aisha to get her tumbling down this year so we actually get to see this routine in competition?  Fortunately, UCLA locked in Gerber II for 2013-14, so we get 4 more years of this.

UCLA is posting a whole slew of videos at the BruinGymnastics youtube page, complete with an identifying bars skills tutorial (“Gienger!”).  Don’t try to watch the videos with that UCLA all-access player. It’s useless nonsense.