An Ohio State student and her team are still jumping over competition on the stage of MTV’s “America’s Best Dance Crew.”
Lisa Brown, a third-year in middle childhood education, is a member of Saltare, a jump-roping group that has competed for the title of “America’s Best Dance Crew” since the show’s east regional competition in early February. The team has since moved on to national competition, and is one of only seven teams left on the show.
Brown said every day on ABDC is a blessing.
“It was a shock to even make it to regionals,” she said. “Every day [the team] wakes up, we are like, ‘we’re on ABDC; that’s the coolest thing ever.'”
Saltare had performed without flaw and received only praise from the show’s judges until two weeks ago, when timing trouble caused mistakes in their live routine. This caused Brown and Brittany Fortier, the only other woman on Saltare’s six-person crew, to look clumsy while jumping in the rope.
“She went a little sooner, and I went a little later,” Brown said. “The music was really fast, and you have a tenth of a second if something feels off to decide what to do. It didn’t work, and it screwed up the section.”
Backstage, after the performance, Brown said emotions ran high, but she couldn’t show it.
“It’s hard when you want to go in the corner and cry,” she said. “But the cameras are [backstage] and you don’t want them to get that.”
The group caught a break, however, when Mario Lopez, the show’s host, announced that technical errors in the voting system caused the results to be thrown out.
While being on the show, Brown said she is taking online classes to keep her scholarship.
“When I switched to online classes, I thought it was going to be a piece of cake,” she said. “But it’s not. We don’t have a lot of free time, and when there is we just want to hang out and relax. It’s hard, but I’m trying.”
She said the team reads the show’s blogs, which has been both a negative and positive experience.
“There are a lot of haters, and a lot of supporters,” she said. “One comment said ‘I really want to hate Saltare, but they are really good.'”
Her favorite part of the show has been opening viewers to jumping rope, she said.
“I think it changes people’s minds and people’s opinion that jump roping is cool,” Brown said. “They picture it as playground sport, or not even a sport at all — just something fun for little girls to do. It’s fun to change people’s minds.”
With the crowning of the best dance crew getting closer and closer, Brown said win or lose, she would still be happy.
“We are so surprised to make it this far,” she said. “Any crew has the potential to win. … Do we expect to win? No. Would we love to win? Yes.”
