BVU Freshman Joins Outback Bowl Dance Performance

Dance team, accessible professors, scholarships play important roles in BVU journey for accounting and business major Libby Birdsell.

Libby Birdsell may have made Buena Vista University history when she performed at halftime of the Outback Bowl on New Year’s Day in Tampa, Fla.

“Libby might be the first BVU dance team member to take part in performance at an NCAA Division I football bowl game,” says BVU Director of Cheer & Dance Kezia Molinsky. “We’re very proud of her and how she represents the Beavers as a student and leader in our growing program.”

Dance was established formally as a BVU sport three years ago, one of 22 NCAA intercollegiate sports offered to Beaver student-athletes. The program represents a key reason why Birdsell, a 2021 Bishop Heelan High School graduate, chose BVU.

“Things have gone well for me academically. I feel like I can talk to any of my professors about any issues I’m having. They all want their students to be the best they can be.”

Libby Birdsell

“I knew I wanted to dance in college,” says Birdsell, who participated in dance for 12 years before her high school graduation. “Dance is being built as a program and is taken very seriously by our coaches Kezia Molinsky and Tori Stille. It’s fun to build a program.”

Birdsell was set to perform in the 2021 Outback Bowl with several dancers from the Just for Kix studio in Sioux City. When the COVID-19 pandemic scuttled those plans, officials granted participants the chance to return in 2022. Birdsell joined 30 or so Sioux City area dancers in routines performed by nearly 300 dancers during pregame and halftime festivities.

The opportunity built on a fall season in which Birdsell joined her teammates in performing during BVU home football games. The activity continues this season with performances at Beaver basketball games, a date in the conference dance finals next month, and an appearance in the national meet in April in Daytona, Fla.

BVU student, Libby Birdsell, poses with a peer at the Outback Bowl in Tampa.
Freshman Libby Birdsell, left, poses with Just for Kix dance teammate Joslyn Wilcox, of Sioux City, during a break in practices prior to a pair of performances at the Outback Bowl on New Year's Day.

“We enjoy performing during BVU games because the crowds are so enthusiastic, it’s a fun game-day atmosphere,” she says.

When she’s not competing in dance, Birdsell is participating in class as an accounting and business major who fashioned a 3.5 GPA her first semester. BVU’s class sizes, which encourage participation and a one-on-one relationship with faculty, also played a role in her becoming a Beaver.

“Things have gone well for me academically,” she says. “I feel like I can talk to any of my professors about any issues I’m having. They all want their students to be the best they can be.”

Birdsell earned a trio of scholarships to lend increased affordability to her experience. She earned a scholarship to dance while also qualifying for a Presidential Scholarship and the new Invest in Rural Iowa Scholarship, a $5,000 renewable award presented to select students from a 19-county region of Northwest Iowa.

Combined, these experiences help Birdsell choreograph an educational journey that may see her building a business, if not two.

“I’d like to own and operate an accounting firm someday,” she says. “If I have the chance to coach dance on the side, that would be great, too.”

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