“Everyone at the competition was super impressed that we are a student-run squad,” Cameron says. “That is basically unheard of.”

EMBRACING THE STEREOTYPE

Another thing that is basically unheard of is a group of girls that looks straight out of “Bring It On” at Harvard.

These women do not fit a stereotype, but have to face them whether they are at competition—where they are “the Harvard girls”—or Cambridge, where they are “the dance team girls.”

But the skeptical look and occasional off-hand comment don’t seem to bother the girls in either place, even though sometimes when other squads see them wearing shirts emblazoned with “Harvard” they think it’s a joke.

“I love being from Harvard when we go to competition,” Daniels says, “because it kind of gives you a little consolation prize. You know, if you don’t dance well, at least you’re smart.”

And on campus?

“The stereotype I have here doesn’t bother me either,” Daniels says with a smile. “I think it kind of complicates who I am a little bit. It really isn’t something I think about.”

There probably isn’t time.

The Crimson Dance Team—part performance group, part spirit squad and part nationally-competitive dance troupe—has a schedule that never stops and a season that never ends.

They cheer at both men’s and women’s basketball games. They perform at on-campus events about as often as a cappella groups. And oh yeah, have their own competition season, which begins with the recording of a national qualifying tape in December.

When Cameron—who rooms with several varsity athletes—is asked to compare the time commitment to that of a varsity sport, she hedges before her roommate Kim Gould jumps in.

Gould—the setter for the women’s volleyball team and a member of the Crimson Dance Team her freshman season—claims that during season, volleyball practices more. But then, the dance season never stops.

“They’re both just as hard, I’ll say that,” Gould says.

So with so much to do, how do they prioritize?

Easily.

“We definitely see ourselves as a spirit squad,” Cameron says. “We gladly cheer at all the basketball games. But at the same time we can’t help but see the entire season leading up to nationals in April as our practice time. Because when it comes down to it, we are a competitive squad.”

--Staff writer Lande A. Spottswood can be reached at spottsw@fas.harvard.edu.