UCLA gymnast Nia Dennis had everyone talking after he routine last week. She was competing with her team at NCAA women’s collegiate gymnastics event and she took part in the floor routine. She used music by Beyonce in her performance and Twitter went wild.
A homecoming performance that would make @Beyonce proud! @DennisNia made us lose our breath with her 9.975 on floor exercise last weekend in Pauley.
Who else is crazy in love with her routine? 😍 pic.twitter.com/XE4VvTrZOK
— UCLA Gymnastics (@uclagymnastics) February 28, 2020
“Such a treat to be there to watch it live!” one fan wrote. Just amazing! And happy belated @DennisNia …it was your bday, but we received the gift of your passion and talent!”
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“This is exactly what representation translates into, being able to identify yourself through someone who looks like you,” another fan wrote. “She is an amazing gymnast and I hope she gets to shine even more, while performing to Beyonce.”
“My favorite part of these clips is watching the teammates shadow the choreography and their raucous support of each other,” a third fan stated.
One of the things that stood out with the performance is the end when she pretended to put a crown on her head. The routine was so strong, she earned a 9.975 score out of a possible 10.0 according to PEOPLE.
The interesting thing about this is Dennis’ routine comes a little over one year after Katelyn Ohashi, another UCLA gymnast getting social media fired up over her floor exercise performance. Ohashi spoke to PopCulture.com back in August and she talked about the video of the routine which won an ESPY award for Best Play.
“Crazy,” she said after she took home the top honor. “I feel like, honestly, I was just proud that I was even nominated to go. So winning was … the cherry on top of everything, and even more important, I was so happy that I got to go up and speak again, and say one of my poems.”
Ohashi went to say the success has led to the trolls trying to bring her down.
“I don’t take any of it to heart, but it is important to touch upon these things when personally I’ve tried, like, having hate in my heart and it’s so hard for me when it’s so easy to just love everyone and appreciate someone’s talent,” she said.
As of March 9, Dennis’ video has been viewed over 10 million times on UCLA’s Twitter account.
