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Gymnasts honor former Bruins with legacy routines

Freshman Sonya Meraz’s floor exercise routine is one based on that of former UCLA gymnast Lena Degteva. (Aubrey Yeo/Daily Bruin senior staff)

By Boer Fu

Jan. 29, 2015 12:16 a.m.

Fourteen years ago, former Bruin Onnie Willis started a tumbling pass across the floor, accompanied by the music “Minus One.” In 2015, redshirt junior Sadiqua Bynum finished that tumbling skill, and landed on the same drumbeat.

This year, the UCLA gymnastics team paid tribute to legacy floor routines, bringing back some of 25th-year coach Valorie Kondos Field’s classic choreography.

For example, Bynum is re-enacting Willis’ floor routine from 2001. It was a series of opportunities that led to the rediscovery of Willis’ classic routine. Last summer, Bynum started out watching an online video of Willis’ floor routine to learn some of her tumbling passes.

“I watched a few of her routines, and I fell in love with the music and with her routines,” Bynum said.

Kondos Field decided to offer Bynum the opportunity to perform the routine herself after recognizing her appreciation.

Willis was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in October. When Willis came back to campus, she got the chance to see Bynum learning the moves. Bynum has kept the routine as similar to its original form as possible. But at the same time, she added a few personal touches.

“I had a moonwalk in my routine last year. That was like my signature thing,” Bynum said. “So we just passed it on to this routine.”

Meanwhile, freshman Sonya Meraz is competing with Lena Degteva’s second-year floor routine from the 1990s.

“I learned her routine, and it fit perfectly,” Meraz said.

Sophomore Jennifer Pinches is also getting passed down the legacy of Degteva’s floor exercise, the “West Side Story” routine from 1997.

“I think I just said, ‘Jennifer Pinches, you would be great doing Lena Degteva’s routine from “West Side Story.”‘ It’s one of my favorite routines,” Kondos Field said. “She got really excited about it. And that just kind of snowballed from there.”

In practices, Kondos Field said she tried to convey the sense of honor that performing legacy routines would bring to the gymnasts.

“I grew up as a ballet dancer. And in my world, it was such an honor, such a privilege, to dance ballets that have been passed down for hundreds of years, like ‘Swan Lake,’ ‘Coppélia’ and ‘(The) Nutcracker,’” Kondos Field said. “If you do those ballets, whether you’re in the United States or Russia, you’re doing the same choreography.”

Kondos Field emphasized that, like ballet, floor exercise is a performance.

“I always tell them when they salute the judge and walk in those white lines, they’re on stage,” Kondos Field said. “Even when they’re on beam, they’re on a 4-inch-wide stage. It’s not a 40-foot-wide stage, but they’re still there to perform.”

Kondos Field believes that the best performers are those who can feed off a crowd. Kondos Field said junior Danusia Francis is the UCLA gymnast who does that the best. Francis’ floor exercise this year is not a legacy routine, but a James Bond routine that involves a lot of gun-shooting hand gestures instead.

“She’s James Bond. When she shoots her gun, if she sees someone in the audience, she’ll look right at them and draw them into her performance,” Kondos Field said. “She’s not just an athlete. She’s a performer.”

And who knows, maybe Francis’ James Bond routine will be brought back on stage by a future Bruin.

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