Danie Ferris’ mind is racing.
She salutes the judges and takes a deep breath before stepping onto the blue mat and rolling down into her beginning pose: right arm extended, right leg bent and toes pointed.
“Lock in. Please don’t step out of bounds. Look for the landing. Fix your arms. Look at the judges. Oh, and don’t forget to breathe.” Those are just a few of the things running through the UF sophomore gymnast’s head as she performs her 90-second floor routine.
While many – including the gymnasts and their coaches – see floor exercise as the most fun, creative and entertaining discipline, the end result is the culmination of months of work picking music, perfecting choreography and training for tumbling passes. Each routine can then make or break their team’s performance.
No. 3 Florida will compete Thursday in Fort Worth, Texas, in the semifinals of the NCAA women’s gymnastics championships, looking to earn a spot in Saturday’s Four on the Floor final round – and a chance to win the program’s first national championship since 2015.
But long before the Gators landed in Texas, UF’s gymnasts and coaches each spent all summer and fall creating and perfecting floor routines, enhancing them with the right combination of technical skill and artistry.
Ferris wanted to celebrate her heritage in her routine through her music and dance. Her mother is from Morocco, so it was important to Ferris to incorporate her family culture as a big part of her performance.
“I wanted to honor that and use that to express myself,” Ferris said.
Ferris, a native of Palm Coast, Florida, started thinking about this season’s routine last summer, right after last season ended. The first step was finding the right music.
Florida assistant coach and choreographer Jeremy Miranda works with the team’s gymnasts individually to select the music around which to design the routine. Ferris approached Miranda last season, expressing she wanted to continue with her Moroccan-themed routine. Then she threw the curveball of wanting to start it with Beyoncé’s “Drunk In Love.” Miranda’s challenge was to figure out how to combine the iconic Beyoncé sound and the slower Moroccan music Ferris wanted to use.
“That’s where my brain goes to work and piece together what makes sense,” Miranda said.
Miranda took into account how Ferris likes her routines structured, including details like how she prefers to start on the floor and have a slower-paced routine.
His brain never stops thinking about music. Miranda said he’ll be in a hotel or elevator and hear a random song and think, “This is perfect.” He keeps an Excel spreadsheet handy, so if someone has a specific request, he can search through his archives.
To create Ferris’ perfect music mix, Miranda started with her Beyoncé request. He then found slow pulse music to use as a transition, which pushes Ferris through her first tumbling pass. The routine is then anchored by the song “Habibi,” which ties it back to Ferris’ Moroccan heritage.
Miranda said it took all summer to find the three pieces.
Once the music is set, next comes the choreography. Miranda said they don’t really talk about choreography in advance, they just set a single day – typically a Wednesday in the fall – when they don’t practice.
He looks at each gymnast’s old club routines to find patterns in their movement. Do they like to start on the ground? What are some of the ways they’ve gotten to the ground before? What are some of the poses they’ve felt comfortable starting in?
He knows everyone hears music and feels steps differently, so Miranda said he doesn’t want to have something set in his brain because then he’ll default to what makes sense in his mind.
He typically budgets around three hours. It might even take more than one Wednesday for some. But for Ferris, it was a one and done.
“She’s an amazing quick study,” Miranda said. “Dance is super easy for her.”
He noted Ferris was very specific about what she wanted. Miranda called himself a people pleaser, so he ultimately wanted to make sure she was happy.
“If she’s happy, I know it’s going to look good,” Miranda said.
Miranda always tries to create a space of comfort and give the gymnasts the license to try new things. Whether it’s rolling around on the floor laughing or doing unique poses, he wants to get them out of their comfort zone, but also relaxed.
Ferris had specific ideas for her routine, such as wanting to infuse her heritage in the music and choreography. Moves like crossing her wrists while her hands are together and others are a nod to her Moroccan roots. Ultimately, Ferris wanted her music to be the most expressive of her culture.
“That collaboration piece is what ultimately makes them look so custom because it was literally created on them, for them,” Miranda said.
The team’s first intersquad in the fall is around Halloween, so Miranda likes to have the entire routine done no later than Oct. 1 to ensure they have four full weeks of practice heading into preseason. The regular season, which typically starts at the beginning of January, is still two months away.
Now comes the tumbling.
Ferris’ 2025 routine features the same two passes she performed last season. Her first pass is a tuck full in, which is essentially a skill that combines a double backflip with a full twist. Her second pass is a 1 ½ front layout, meaning she does a roundoff, a 1 ½ twist and then a front layout.
The 5-foot-5 Ferris experimented with associate head coach Adrian Burde in the summer to see which passes to implement. They typically have an idea of what tumbling passes she can do, so they can build music and choreography around that.
By the end of October or beginning of November, the coaches need to know what the gymnasts are capable of competing every week with confidence. In the end, they narrow in on passes that will have the least deductions and will score better.
The plan was originally for Ferris to compete a double layout this season. However, they stopped training the pass due to a preseason ankle injury. Burde said a double layout can sometimes require more time and training, but he’s hopeful Ferris will perfect the pass next season.
In college gymnastics, a double layout and a tuck full have the same degree of difficulty. Tumbling passes are measured on an A-to-J difficulty scale, where A is the easiest and J is the most difficult. In Ferris’ case, a double layout and a tuck full in are both E passes, so she doesn’t lose any difficulty.
Burde said he wants the gymnasts to do a skill that allows them to be comfortable and successful. So, it’s always a collaboration. If he has a gymnast do a skill they’re not comfortable with, he knows he’s not doing anyone a service.
“I want you to feel comfortable and confident every time you step on that floor,” Burde said.
Ferris said her favorite part of doing floor in college is the fun. She noted in club gymnastics, it didn’t feel as fun to dance around. She came to UF as the No. 2 recruit in the country in the class of 2023, according to College Gym News.
And she has excelled during her brief time in Gainesville thus far.
“Now it feels like it’s just me on the floor doing my thing and I’m comfortable doing it, so that’s the best part,” Ferris said.
She acknowledged that it sometimes can be difficult to get into the performance mindset. On occasion, she just wants to get through the tumbling and leaps and be done. Nevertheless, Ferris goes out and performs for the crowd and her teammates.
Since a large part of gymnastics is judging, Ferris makes sure she choreographs looking at the judges as part of her routine. During a walk through before a meet, she’ll scout where the judges will be sitting so she knows where to look.
Even now, as the Gators are competing in the postseason, Ferris is still working on being less stiff in her dance and cleaning up landings. She has competed on floor in all but two meets this season and Florida relies on her consistency.
Ferris set her season best of 9.900 against Missouri on Feb. 28, a score she has since matched twice. Her career high is a 9.925, set as a freshman in 2024.
Miranda said the routines are living, breathing things. They’re constantly fluctuating and changing.
In fact, they changed the ending of Ferris’ routine prior to Florida’s final regular-season meet against Kentucky. She now dances into a pose out of her last tumbling pass, using that to get down to the ground for her routine-ending Gator chomp.
“Even this late in the season we’re still making little tweaks here and there to maximize the artistic component and minimize deductions,” Miranda said.
But, when it’s time to perform in a meet, Ferris is just focused on normalcy – doing what she does every day in training.
And when that music comes on on meet day, she hopes people will recognize her Arabic culture through her music.
“I just want to show how much love I have for them and my people,” Ferris said.
When the 90 seconds are up, Ferris gives a nod to the culture of Florida gymnastics with her ending Gator chomp. She throws her arms open wide, then clasps them together, right over left.
It’s the perfect transition from honoring her family’s roots to celebrating where she is now.