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How the Black Mambas share their love for dance with Mason and each other

BY VIVIANA SMITH, SENIOR STAFF WRITER

If you hear eclectic afrobeats and the cheer of excited audiences, chances are The Black Mambas are performing. Mason’s Black Mambas dance team has been around for 10 years, bringing the heat to many events on and off campus with their mixed style of afrobeats and majorette-inspired moves. 

According to their Mason360 profile, their mission is “to share African culture through the art of dance, and promote physical wellness.” At their performances, the spread of African culture and joy is undeniable, as audience members can’t help but cheer and dance along. They’re a crowd favorite, as seen by their win for “People’s Choice” and “Girl Scouts Choice” at the 2025 International Week (iWeek) dance competition. 

Aside from the love they receive from the crowd, the Black Mambas seem to share even more love from within. 

Their fast-paced and perfected performances are strengthened by their daily practices. Freshman Black Mambas’ dancer Whitney Cardwell shared that the team continuously sharpens their routines during practice. Though it sounds tough, when practice starts, it’s mostly smiles and laughter as they rehearse. 

“We never have a practice without laughing or some type of joke that we make,” Cardwell said. “It really feels like a good community within the girls. I genuinely think of them as like my sisters.” 

Sophomore Janice Champnkem shared that there’s never an awkward moment with the group. “We get along really well… we’re just a big family,” she said. 

For the Black Mambas’ President, junior Esther Gibson, holding the family together is both rewarding and sometimes challenging. Gibson shared that breaking people out of their shells is difficult, but welcoming new members into the family is what they do best. “The way we love each other, the way we care for each other,” she said. “I don’t like to think of us as a team, it’s more.”

Gibson shared that it can be a struggle to balance being a leader, friend and student, but “it’s hard to feel any kind of negative emotions” about the pressures because of the strong community around her. “They’re great people, great work ethic, great students, great dancers, great everything,” she said with a smile. The familial bond brings out the best in the dancers, with some sharing how they’ve grown in their self-confidence as well as their skills. 

Champnkem shared that she always loved to dance, but never knew how to put the right moves together on her own. After being convinced to join the team, the Black Mambas helped build her up from the basics. Champnkem believes it’s the camaraderie that encouraged her. 

Cardwell said this community makes her feel welcomed. “Especially as a freshman, it’s sometimes hard to kind of find your people and get out of your comfort zone,” she said. “With them, I was able to do that easily…being able to do that made me feel better about myself.”

The confidence was beaming from each member—probably because the Black Mambas are still reliving the high of their two wins at the iWeek dance competition. “It literally felt amazing… when I heard the crowd shouting, ‘big mambas…’ I was like ‘what’,” Gibson said. “ I wish I could relive that.”

For Champnkem, the iWeek performance was her first performance with the team. “Our hard work and dedication, we practiced everyday…it was so smooth,” she said. 

“Sometimes it’s truly not about that first or second place win. It’s about how we make the audience feel,” Cardwell said. “It’s nice when we see that we’ve impacted somebody else.”

The process of joining the Black Mambas is competitive, according to Gibson, but she encourages those who are willing to be their most authentic self to try out. The team is full of dancers who add their own flavor to each move, shared Gibson, so there’s always room for a new flow. 

“Don’t be afraid,” Cardwell urged any newcomers. “You never truly truly know until you just do it.” Cardwell insists that the Black Mambas—rather “sisters”—are here to help one another each dance step of the way.