Amanda Gaines. Photo: Chris Emeott
Meet Amanda Gaines, University of Minnesota’s award-winning head dance coach.
The moment before Universal Dance Association’s College Nationals in 2025 unfolded much like it had in 2006. The University of Minnesota (U of M) Dance Team huddled together for a final, high energy chant before hitting the competition floor. And, just like 15 years earlier—when head coach Amanda Gaines was a freshman on the team—they won.
Gaines has been in her student-athletes’ shoes. “My first time [at Nationals] was really unlike anything I had ever experienced,” she says. “You work all season on two routines, and you get to compete them twice. You’ve got four minutes on the competition floor to sum up your entire year. It was a really rewarding experience, knowing we had worked as hard as we did and achieved the goal that we set out to do, which was win a National Championship in 2006.”
But before Gaines was competing on the national stage and coaching others to do the same, she was a kid growing up in Plymouth who couldn’t stay still. “I was one of those kids that was constantly dancing around the house, heard a song and just had to start moving,” Gaines says. Her parents enrolled her at Summit Dance Shoppe (then The Dance Shoppe), and she tapped, pirouetted and shimmied her way through an array of genres. “We were doing it all, which was a really great way to be a very well-trained dancer,” Gaines says.
During her freshman year at Wayzata High School, Gaines took the next step in her dance career when she joined the Wayzata Trojet Dance Team. “I was still dancing at The Dance Shoppe and then layering on that team aspect, getting to support your school and competing at state; it was a really influential experience,” Gaines says.
Amanda Gaines (far right) on the University of Minnesota Dance Team, 2008. Photo: University of Minnesota Dance Team
In her senior year, Gaines only applied to three schools (“The other two were kind of just to make my parents happy,” she says.). The U of M’s dance team had been rising to prominence since 2002, and Gaines knew that’s where she wanted to be. “The first day of tryouts was my 18th birthday, so yeah, I vividly remember that tryout weekend,” she says. Her leap of faith paid off, and Gaines represented the U of M from 2005–09 alongside teammates who are still like family to this day.
Twenty years later, Gaines is still at the U of M, starting as an assistant coach in 2010 and taking over as head coach for the 2013–14 season. Of the team’s 23 national titles in pom and jazz, Gaines has been a part of the team for 20 of them. “I think that success is really just about the village that surrounds us,” Gaines says. “It’s about the people that we choose to bring in to work with the team in whatever capacity, whether that’s the coaching staff, the choreographers, teachers, consultants [and] alumni. It’s really the collective that has helped elevate the team and helped us maintain this level of excellence.”
Although Gaines has been to Nationals numerous times as a coach, the experience is still a striking one for members of the team. “Nationals is probably my core memory just because it actually didn’t feel real at first, and I just didn’t know what to expect going into it,” says U of M sophomore and dance team member Katelyn Franta about the 2025 competition in which the team took first place for pom and second place for jazz. “It’s a lot to take in at first, but I think having the right teammates and people around you makes it easier to get through it and just enjoy the process and make the best out of it.”
In 2025, the University of Minnesota dance team took home first place in pom (pictured) and second place in jazz at the Universal Dance Association’s College Nationals. Photos: Rouse Productions
The Maple Grove native’s story in many ways mirrors Gaines’. Franta also got her start at Summit Dance Shoppe before attending Wayzata High School and dancing with the Trojets. As a coach, Gaines’ teaching style reminds Franta of their shared training at Summit. “I feel like she’s taken how she was coached and applied that to how she coaches our team now,” Franta says. “I really enjoy it, actually, because it’s similar to how I grew up.”
Although there are times of tough love, Franta says that Gaines knows when to be supportive. “I feel like she always has the right thing to say, and it always helps motivate me in the right way,” Franta says.
After placing second for jazz at Nationals in 2025, Gaines had the team huddle around her. “She was just telling us how proud she was of us, no matter what the outcome was,” Franta says. “I feel like that was just definitely a moment that I’ll always remember because she seemed just so happy and proud of us for what we did.”
University of Minnesota dance team competing in jazz at Nationals in 2025.
As of December, the U of M Dance Team has been fine-tuning and polishing its pom and jazz routines for Nationals on January 16–18. “Our motto this year is ‘Uncommon on purpose, outworked by none,’ and I think it’s a good way to describe them,” Gaines says. “What we were doing 10 years ago, compared to what we’re doing now, is wild. I think the level of athleticism has continued to grow. The artistry has continued to expand. I think the level of excellence that these athletes are held to is higher than ever.”
University of Minnesota Dance Team
Instagram: @uofmdanceteam
