15 year old Nika Mikel Hall has been dancing at UDA for two years.  Nika has always wanted to naturally dance and move when music came on, and when she saw how much fun the girls on a team were having, it made her want to compete.  She loves to do hip hop because it is so fun and loose, but she also likes lyrical and contemporary dance because those styles allow her to express so many emotions.  She loved Artists in Training this year, because she had more freedom to put her own style on the choreography.  She said it was really fun and she was able to do more of the moves they were teaching because of her first year’s technical training at UDA.  She had fun being with her friends and being able to put herself into the dancing.  Her favorite dances are last year’s competition and recital dances “Wings 2 Fly” and “For the Boys” because  they were such happy dances to do. 

Some of Nika’s special friends at UDA include Ashlyn, Blaikly, Montanna and Kylee.  One UDA teacher that truly inspires Nika is Angel Nunez.  She said she has improved so much just from having his class twice a week.  Nika said Angel has taught her more classical training and has helped her gain better flexibility and he gives great inspiring corrections!

Nika’s goals include auditioning for and making the Minerettes drill team at Bingham, and to study dance in college and possibly be a BYU Cougarette.