UCLA gymnast Nia Dennis doesn’t just do gymnastics. She does gymnastics with and for the culture, following in the Black Girl Magic empowered footsteps of former UCLA gymnasts.
In February of 2016, Sophina DeJesus gave gymnastics fans a hip-hop filled routine that blew the internet up.
In January of 2019, Katelyn Ohashi tore up the mat with a high-flying routine to the likes of Earth, Wind & Fire and the Jackson 5.
Two years later, the Bruins have a new star. And like her predecessors, Nia Dennis brought the house down and went viral with her own Black culture-inspired routine.
The 21-year old senior started the routine by taking a knee with her fist raised, paying homage to Colin Kaepernick. Then she amazed the audience and fellow gymnasts with a musical mash-up featuring Beyonce, Missy Elliott and Tupac. Even better was the fact that she garnered an almost perfect score of 9.95.
Dennis incorporated various aspects of Black culture, including stepping, into her routine. That was courtesy of her father, who sent her a video of him stepping.
“Growing up, my dad was always stepping in the house,” said Dennis to NBC News. “I’m so happy that I was really able to take this time, this year- my senior year- to honor him.”
Her routine has captured the attention of everyone from Simone Biles, Missy Elliott and Janet Jackson to our forever first lady, Michelle Obama.
Being able to express her own style and implement the culture into her routines wasn’t an easy task for Dennis growing up. The sport was restrictive and traditional, especially for Black gymnasts.
But that wasn’t going to stop Nia Dennis from flipping over these obstacles to break rigid traditions.
“It was very difficult, and especially when you have your coaches telling you that you don’t look good or you’re not in shape because you don’t fit into those typical styles of gymnastics, which is so cookie-cutter,” she said. “Black gymnasts are kind of rare in the sport of gymnastics. And Black culture is not really recognized or known in the sport of gymnastics, so it was really important to me to bring that into the light of gymnastics — to raise awareness of Black culture.”
Nia Dennis has accomplished that goal and now everyone is talking about UCLA gymnastics and Black Girl Magic once more.
