The Queen’s Competitive Dance Team’s sold-out Dancing With The Stars (QU Edition) lived up to the hype.
The show took place on Feb. 3, 2025 and started at 7:30 p.m. at the Isabel Bader Centre for The Performing Arts’s Jennifer Velva Bernstein Performance Hall. The show was packed; even the obstructed view seats were filled. The show paired members of the Queen’s Competitive Dance Team with ‘stars’ on campus, where they performed before a panel of judges.
Inspiration came from the hit American Broadcasting Company (ABC) show Dancing With The Stars, where celebrities and dancers pair together and train to compete with other celebrity-dancer pairs in front of judges Nicole Le Donne, Artsci ’27, and Naomi Budinszky and Brooke Harris, both ConEd ’27 . Its new season found immense popularity amongst a Gen Z audience with the inclusion of online personalities like Alix Earle, Robert Irwin, and Dylan Efron. The ABC show was subsequently inspired by the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) show Strictly Come Dancing, which follows a similar premise.
The ‘stars’ included Jake Kost, Alexa Pae, and Taite Marsden, all ArtSci ’26, Osa Osaseri, and Iain St. Arnault, both Artsci ‘27, James Simone, and Everett Smith, Sci ’28, Jacob Mclean, Kin ‘26, Johnny Shenouda, HealthSci ‘26, and Tyler Doughty, ArtSci ’29.
They were supported by Queen’s Competitive Dance team members Gemini Wttewaaal, Stephen Andrews, and Laine Andrews, all ArtSci ’29, Sienna Trigg and Sophia Simonelli, ConEd ’29, Abby Panetta and Rowan Hernandez, ArtSci ’28, Curtis Smith, Sci ’28, Tori Muxlow, ConEd ’28, and Olivia Sawchyn, ConEd ’27.
Tickets to the show sold out 15 minutes after the team announced ticket sales on their Instagram, and posts around the event received extremely high engagement compared to the rest of their Instagram.
“We were definitely [hitting] some of [our] marketing goals with our posts; being able to see over 1,000 shares on our Instagram or the 2.5 million profiles that visited our profile were things that we anticipated,” said backstage manager Indee Kwajah, HealthSci ‘28, in an interview with The Journal.
“[Selling out in] 15 minutes was kind of crazy and we weren’t expecting that, but we were definitely expecting a large audience out there,” she said.
Apart from some minor technical glitches that took place when playing a video showing the process of preparing for the show, the audience’s eyes were glued to the stage throughout the night.
Highlights included football player Osaseri and dance team vet Trigg’s endearing choreography to “Loveboat” by Jack Jones, and dance team rookie Hernandez and volleyball player Smith’s electrifying salsa choreography. The crowd also went wild when dance team veteran Simonelli unbuttoned football player St. Arnault’s shirt mid-choreography—a risk that awarded them all 10s from the judges.
The audience was made up of parents, friends, and partners of the performers. Given the event’s set up, where people of varying interests came together to dance. With ‘stars’, performers, and fans combined, the night was one big musical number away from being a fourth High School Musical movie.
Ultimately, the judges and an audience vote declared Simonelli and St. Arnault winners of the show, a win that was well deserved following a performance of “Feeling Good” by Michael Bublé that showcased the insane chemistry the two of them share as performers.
Beyond the competition however, the show felt like a rare moment where the entire university was somehow together, not divided by faculties or teams. Instead, the space was unified by choreography and a love for dance, along with the courage needed to express that love on the stage. While Simonelli and St. Arnault deserved their win, the real winners, in a way, were the audience members who experienced a night full of joy, passion, and creativity.
Tags
Dance, Dancing with the stars, queen’s dance team
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