In January 2019, UCLA gymnast Katelyn Ohashi went viral for her floor routine, garnering more than 10 million views across social media platforms. Her routine, choreographed to a medley of Michael Jackson hits, was punctuated by dynamic tumbling and trademark dance moves like the Moonwalk. The internet went wild.
Ohashi was one of the first gymnasts to get a taste of fame thanks to her charismatic floor routine, but she certainly wasn’t the last. Almost every season a new NCAA gymnast breaks into the mainstream with a viral floor routine. Though each routine is different, what they all have in common is the way the music connects with the audience. How do coaches, athletes, and choreographers work together to choose a piece of music that not only fits the athlete but can resonate with the target audience?
Music has immense power over our mental psyche and can evoke memories of a person, a memory, or a feeling. That’s why selecting music individualized to each person’s taste and performance quality is so important in helping gymnasts create a routine that is meaningful to them.
Thomas Parrott, the owner of Sunrise Music Productions and the mastermind behind the music for gymnasts on Denver’s team, emphasizes that the process is very nuanced for each team and each individual athlete. He starts the process by doing a FaceTime call with each gymnast, sifting through potential options and ideas. “It’s very different for every athlete because sometimes they have exactly what they want, but some athletes have no idea and you just kind of figure it out, OK well what’s going to get you excited about what you’re doing, what’s going to bring the most out of you?” Parrott said.
For some gymnasts, college marks the first time in their career they have autonomy over choosing their own floor music. This is why choreographers and music producers play such an important role in helping each athlete choose the right music. Some athletes may perform better to electronic dance tracks, while some may prefer a more intense, Brooklyn Moors-esque routine. The bottom line is the music has to be authentic to each athlete.
The process can be daunting, given the practically endless number of available options. Parrott usually starts by asking gymnasts questions like what they’re listening to right now, what the last song they listened to was, what their most listened to song is right now, what their Spotify Wrapped looks like, and then uses that information to start to narrow down choices.
On the other hand, Parrott works with some athletes who know exactly what they want. He used Momoko Iwai, a fifth-year on Denver’s team, as an example. “Momoko always does a really good job with anime music and songs that she’s really passionate about which I love, it’s so much fun,” said Parrott. “She sends me a list of songs and I narrow it down to what’s going to fit best together. I’m making sure the music has crowd appeal within the parameters of the songs she sent me.”
Parrott emphasized crowd appeal as a major factor in the decision-making and production. “In collegiate gymnastics, the crowd is everything, so we have to make sure that we’re finding stuff for the girls that will bring the crowd into it too,” he said. “We see that crowds help energize the environment to bring the most out of the athletes.”
UCLA fifth-year Chae Campbell said crowd engagement is an outcome of choosing music that she loves herself. “In my experience, I found that the most successful floor routines that people like are the ones that you like the most,” Campbell said. “It’s impossible to please everyone, so what I feel comfortable with, with what I love, what BJ (Das) loves, and if we both love it, then we know that the audience is going to love it with us because that means that I’m connected to it and I’m going to perform my heart out with it.”
One of the most difficult steps in constructing floor music is ensuring that all the stakeholders like the music. Parrott emphasized that at Denver constructing music and the routine is a symbiotic process between coaching staff, choreographers, music producers, and, of course, the athlete.
Some teams have floor music taboos they make sure to steer clear of. For Parrott, his taboo is seeing gymnasts performing to floor routines with choppy editing, where music of different tempos and genres clash in an unflattering way, catching the listeners and audience off-guard.
The biggest challenge of producing floor music is ensuring everyone involved is happy with the final outcome. “The biggest challenge is making sure that all those things work together, that the athlete loves it, the coaches and choreographers love it, and that the crowd’s going to love it,” Parrott said. “It’s a good balance and with every athlete in every different situation and that’s why it’s always fun for me to do this and to work because it’s like a snowflake, every single one is completely different.”
READ THIS NEXT: Full Steam Ahead for the Anchorwomen
Article by Daniel Rothwell
