School girls, mean girls, ruff riders and nerds were just a few of the people dancing at the RPAC Saturday night. Dance teams from all across the Midwest came to Ohio State’s campus to participate in the fourth annual Midwest Mix Up Dance Competition.

The event was co-hosted by Tyler Nelson from MTV’s show, “Taking the Stage,” and rapper and spoken-word artist Searius Add.

Daniel “Diddi” Johnson, an OSU alumnus, created the hip-hop dance competition in December 2006. He said during that time there were a lot of step competitions for Black Greek Letter organizations, and dance teams would serve as intermission talent. Johnson said he felt that it was time to give dancers a competition of their own so they could showcase their talent.

This year’s event had three rounds, with a team eliminated each round. There were no themes for the rounds, so teams were free to decide what each performance would look like. Johnson said eliminating teams each round forced a competitive edge because teams were only guaranteed one performance in the first round.

Teams like Golden Reflections from Kent State University and Stylez from OSU tapped into their theatrical side with their performances. Golden Reflections dressed in wedding attire for one performance while dancing to songs such as Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance.” Stylez performed as nerds and mean girls while acting along to a soundtrack from the movie “Mean Girls.”

Johnson said that with this competition audience members can expect the “unthinkable.” That proved to be true with the team Ruff Riders, who brought a change of pace to the competition with their performance on roller skates.

OSU’s own Dance Linx had a troubling start in the first round. There were technical difficulties with the music that forced three false-start performances. However, the team was able to pull it together and win the competition.

“Honestly, we put that energy into our dance,” said Shannon Burke, vice president of Dance Linx, about the technical difficulties.

Searius Add has hosted the competition all four years. He said he loves the energy of the competition and respects the preparation the teams have to go through before performing. His business relationship with Johnson and being a fan of the competition keeps him coming back each year, he said.

“The show is a product of great planning and the event itself increases in overall quality each year,” Add said.

Johnson said community service was a big part of this year’s event. An organization called Youth Needing Organ Tissue & Transplant, also known as YNOTT, was signing audience members up to be organ donors. Johnson said members of his Mix Up team and the dance teams went out and helped register donors at local Wal-Mart Stores.

There was a performance from Cleveland rapper, artist and producer Tae 4rm da 50. The rapper performed his single “Hectic.” He has worked with rappers such as Fat Al and Chip tha Ripper.

At one point during the competition, Nelson and his younger brother came out onto the stage and battled each other dancing. The two then paired up and showed the crowd some stepping.

Johnson said he selected Nelson to co-host the show with Add after seeing Nelson on MTV.

“Ohio hasn’t always been known as a place where dancers can emerge from,” Johnson said. “It was crazy to see dancers from Cincinnati. I thought the competition would be a good way to expose Tyler.”