After years of Colorado Mesa University’s (CMU) dance team being called the Mavettes, the group decided to rebrand as the Colorado Mesa Dance Team to be more gender inclusive.
Aside from the name change, not much about the team will be different. The group still plans to be at football games helping the student section to cheer and do their performance at half-time.
“Now, to be clear, the dance team is still a varsity dance team. We do everything with the athletic department,” said dance instructor Gabrielle Cahill. “However, in 2015, it was agreed that the dance team would start to be housed in the dance department.”
Since then, the team has been more focused on recruiting to improve their program and less on the competition.
“Over the course of the past seven seasons, since I’ve been the director and coach of the team, we’ve made some really amazing changes and gotten a lot of great talent, said Cahill. “We’ve been able to build the program to where, now, we can change the name from Mavettes to the CMU dance team.”
For years, the team has been called the Mavettes, despite having many male team members; this change embraces what it means to be a co-ed team.
“I was searching for something to be a part of here at CMU. I wanted to be more involved on campus and wanted to create relationships within a team environment,” said sophomore double majoring in History and Secondary Education, Cauy Sanguinette.
Currently, Sanguinette is the only male on the dance team and is looking forward to seeing more people of all genders join the team.
“It didn’t always sit nicely with everybody, and it didn’t really sit as nicely with [Sanguinette] as well. He was referred to as Mr. Mavette[…]from that moment on, and when I took over the team, I always had it in the back of my head[… ]It was just about waiting for the right time,” said Cahill.
With this change, the team hopes to make those of all genders feel accepted in their program.
“We’re just starting fresh,” said Melody Watson, junior in exercise science. “We’re really breaking down this program and looking at it piece by piece to create the best team we possibly can for the school.”
Watson is a game day captain, which means she is in charge of getting the team game day ready.
Those of any major and gender can join the dance team. No one is excluded and everyone is welcome.
The team plans to uphold the honor of being called the CMU Dance Team, as they now feel like more of a part of the CMU community–not just game day leaders, but dancers.
