Inside Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, last April while college gymnasts from Oklahoma, Florida, Utah and Louisiana State tumbled, flipped and danced, the Red Rocks coaches took stock of what they could improve next season. Of the many aspects of a gymnast’s routine to choose from, one thing stood out.
The music.
“It just became something that was going to be an emphasis for us over the summer,” first-year coach Carly Dockendorf said.
The Red Rocks finished third in the NCAA Championships last year, losing out to Oklahoma and Florida. They later lost former coach Tom Farden after he parted ways with the program amid accusations of verbal and emotional abuse.
But as they started their season in earnest Friday against Boise State, the Red Rocks were singing a new tune (or two).
Fans will notice a shift in musical stylings during the team’s floor routines. They’ll probably sing along to sophomore Makenna Smith’s all-1970s playlist that includes “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees. They’ll probably jump around during fifth-year senior Jaedyn Rucker’s routine, which features a little House of Pain. They’ll probably delight in fifth-year senior Abby Paulson’s all-Taylor Swift routine.
Assistant coach Myia Hambrick said part of the reason for the shift in music this season was to cater more to the fans. Those who attend Utah gymnastics events generally skew older or are families with younger children, she said.
And when fans are done singing along, the Red Rocks hope their scores will have them cheering louder than ever.
Musical choices are integral during a floor routine — which only lasts a maximum of one minute, 30 seconds — because they dictate choreography. Dockendorf said she felt this season could include songs that were “more interesting” musically than the previous year. She wanted more opportunities for her gymnasts to have more fun and be more creative.
“We really do try to give the athletes say in their music because it’s important that they like it,” Dockendorf said. “Otherwise, they won’t be able to move to it very well.”
(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Jaedyn Rucker performs her floor routine during the fourth-annual Rio Tinto Best of Utah gymnastics meet between Brigham Young University, Southern Utah University, Utah State University and the University of Utah at the Maverik Center, Jan. 13, 2023.
Music changes from year to year are somewhat common in gymnastics as athletes hone techniques and dance moves over time. But the shift for the Red Rocks this season “definitely feels different,” Paulson said.
“We’ve been a more traditional team in the past floor music wise,” Paulson said. “Where I feel like this year, we have actually expanded to fit our routines [to] our personality instead of trying to fit our personality to our routine, if that makes sense.”
The quest for some new tunes started quickly after the 2022-23 season ended. Hambrick, who is a former gymnast at LSU and in her third season coaching with the Red Rocks, said the process took “months,” and that every coach and gymnast was constantly with ears open for songs that might work. She was inspired by “Jump Around” while on a trip to Korea, she said.
Part of the process that takes so long, Dockendorf added, is finding tracks no one else has. What happens often, she said, is someone will find a song only to discover another school uses that exact song or a version of it.
The Red Rocks enlisted the help of Troy Sales, an audio content producer who has worked on various projects within the state and beyond, including BYU gymnastics and the popular local halftime act Jean’s Golden Girls. Sales started working on music mixes for the Red Rocks in 2019, and he did the music for every gymnast on the roster this season.
While Sales doesn’t choose any music for Utah, a big part of his job is to make his mixes upbeat and dynamic. He does so by speeding up parts of a song, or adding sounds like cymbals, bass drops, transitions and other pieces of “extra flair,” he said.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Makenna Smith celebrates her floor routine as Utah hosts California, NCAA gymnastics in Salt Lake City on Friday, Feb. 24, 2023.
Smith’s routine is an example of a perfect marriage between a musical genre and a gymnast’s personality. Coaches describe Smith as a “free spirit” who loves to have fun, dance and move to the beat of her own drum. Those traits, coaches said, are indicative of the musical decade in Smith’s floor routine.
“She gives very ’70s vibes,” Hambrick said.
Even though Smith is only 19, she’s quite familiar with songs from the ’70s. Her dad likes music from that decade, as does one of her former club coaches. She said she liked the idea of building a routine with those songs because she enjoys watching videos of people dancing in clubs to them.
“She wants to be out there, she wants to do something a little bit out of the box,” Dockendorf said of Smith. “That’s kind of what ’70s music is — it’s different. Someone with Makenna’s personality could do a routine to that, whereas someone maybe who’s a little more reserved wouldn’t get into a ’70s-style-themed routine.”
To top it off, Smith is looking forward to showcasing her routine in front of fans specifically for the music.
“For me personally, I was really excited this year that I felt my music allowed me to kind of engage with the crowd more,” Smith said. “Even if you don’t really know ’70s music, you know what ‘Stayin’ Alive’ is. It’s pretty easy to recognize. So I thought that was super fun.”
Hambrick hopes the musical changes will allow gymnasts to enjoy their routines more due to the floor event’s need for high energy.
“It is a very demanding event,” Hambrick said. “So the more fun you’re having, and the more you’re able to loosen up and just kind of let yourself do your gymnastics, usually the better it turns out.”
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