Team Spirit Shines Through First Male Dance Squad Member at UI

We can't say for certain he was inspired by Will Ferrell's "SNL" skit, only by his team spirit.

Nathan Polancyak (po-LAN-check) has loved dancing his whole life, but needless to say, he was a little afraid of the stigma associated with potentially being the first male to join an all-female dance team at his high school in Missouri. He eventually joined the team, which with his addition was renamed from "The Golden Girls" to "The Golden Girls and Company"  at Francis Howell. Nathan has now brought his talents to the University of Iowa.

He's a freshman history major at Iowa and is again in the role of being the first male ever on the team, though not the first to ever try out.

He has been dancing since he was 8, when, as he told the Cedar Rapids Gazette, he pretty much ruled out other sports as a pursuit.

I had tried a bunch of other sports and activities and none of them really stuck with me or made me feel anything

But when he strapped on his tap shoes? It was a different story.

He was also drawn in by the audition process, which simply required him to send in a video of himself performing, rather than having to show up in person. The second round of his "interview" was to learn and perform the Iowa Fight Song routine, and finally, a Zoom interview with the team's coach, Jenny Eustice.

You'll see Nathan performing with the team on the sidelines at football games, basketball games and more, but a real treat was when they got to compete at nationals January 14-16 at Walt Disney World.

The team got 14th place in jazz, eighth place in poms and third place with a game-day routine.

Nathan also shared good advice for his formerly nervous high school self and many others:

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"If it’s what you love, it’s what you’re meant to be doing.”