Nia Dennis gained viral attention for two of her performances as a university gymnast at the University of California in Los Angeles. But it was her most recent routine – made with a medley of songs by influential black artists from Kendrick Lamar to Megan Thee Stallion and quickly dubbed “#BlackExcellence” on social media – that left so many impressed by the 22-year-old. It’s a concept, Dennis tells Yahoo Life, which was born out of his own need to validate his identity as a black woman.
“For a long time, I wanted my skin color to be different. For a long time, I wanted my hair to fall out and I didn’t want it to be straight. For a long time, I wished the chalk didn’t show up on my legs, “she shares.” I wasn’t even accepting who I was, so it was very important for me to find out who I was as a woman, so that not only could I see, but also so that others could see me. “
This journey towards self-love and acceptance started fundamentally for Dennis in 2016, when she tore Achilles and had to abandon her dreams of becoming an Olympic gymnast. “I never wanted to do gymnastics again,” she recalls. “I never wanted to go back to the sport.” But with his eyes on another life goal – studying at UCLA – Dennis finally started working to regain his confidence and, more importantly, explore who she really was.
“I honestly struggled to find out who I was outside of gym and just felt that gym defined me. This is everything I have done in my entire life and I have devoted a lot of time to it ”, she says. “So my team at UCLA gave me space to grow as a woman and find out who I am, what I have to offer and bring to the table. [And] moreover, it allowed me to express myself, express my personality, let it shine, show and remain authentically true to myself, because that is the most important thing. “
Like a junior performing a solo routine to the sound of Beyoncé Homecoming documentary, about his historic performance at Coachella in 2018, Dennis quickly reached fame on the internet, gaining recognition from celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres and Gabrielle Union. Still, she had a tumultuous break before her last season on the team when she recovered from shoulder surgery and faced the Black Lives Matter reckoning during the summer.
“That was probably the biggest experience in my progression to becoming a woman,” says Dennis of the country’s response to racial injustice. “I just felt like everything was coming together.”
After recognizing that February 2020 routine, the gymnast set out to make an even greater impact with a performance she titled “A Cultura”. And across the Internet, routine has become associated with the hashtag #BlackExcellence.
“Black excellence, for me, is a celebration and highlight of all the great things that black people have done, in all categories – in sports and academics, in science and medicine, everything”, explains Dennis. “It’s not that we just bring great things to the community. We excel at the things we do, so it’s just a celebration of it all.”
Even more, it became a celebration for Dennis and everything she overcame to be a successful black gymnast.
“The gym community as a whole needs to nurture young black gymnasts because, growing up, I was always told that I didn’t look good. I was powerful, I had more muscles, my muscles were more defined ”, she explains about growth. in sport. “So that translated into not being thin enough and shedding my tights, as always being fat, or something. I was called ‘fat’ a lot because of my muscles, because I didn’t have the classic look or what wants the gym community to be so used to seeing. “
Although the criticisms of the sport are not new – as former Olympic athletes Shawn Johnson, Aly Raisman and Simone Biles talked about the body image problems they developed in gymnastics – Dennis hopes that his out-of-the-box performances will be positive to impact other limitations within the sport.
“We need to honestly nurture, embrace and raise all gymnasts of all types, of all types, of all origins, of all cultures, because we all have something different to present. Not all gymnasts have the same style,” he says Dennis. “Gymnastics is fun and should be fun and we should be allowed to express ourselves in different ways and let our personality shine without feeling that we are wrong or crossing the line.”
Fortunately, Dennis now has the support of former First Lady Michelle Obama.
“This is what I call fierce!” Obama tweeted about Dennis’s routine. “You are a star.”
Dennis calls his viral fame “a dream come true”, while admitting he feels some pressure to continue to make a difference in his community and beyond.
“It literally fills me with a lot of love and joy to know that I am making this impact for younger girls and gymnasts and younger black gymnasts,” she says. “I definitely want to have an impact outside of gym too.”
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