Happy fifth birthday, single ladies.
Beyoncé fans Brandon Robinson and Amanda Hanono, both 20, and Maggie Kreuzkamp, 18, took over Turlington Plaza to perform the dance celebrating the fifth anniversary of the singer’s iconic music video, “Single Ladies (Put A Ring on It).”
The trio, decked out in black spandex, performed twice on Monday: once at 11:35 a.m. and again at about 12:35 p.m. during class exchanges. Kreuzkamp couldn’t make it to the second performance because of class.
The group rehearsed a few hours a week for five weeks to nail down the “J-Setting” choreography, when one dancer moves and the other follows, as portrayed in the video.
“Trying to recreate something is so hard because you don’t want to butcher it,” said Hanono, a UF psychology senior.
Robinson, a UF marketing junior who also teaches Zumba and hip-hop fitness classes at Southwest Recreation Center, stole the show as he role-played Beyoncé.
“It’s one of the most cinematically, choreographically, visually pleasing videos of all time,” Robinson said. “This video has actually changed my life.”
A crowd gathered around the pair, and their accurate performance was met with jeers, applause and video recordings.
UF aerospace and mechanical engineering sophomore Amanda Holly, 19, stopped in between classes to watch the performance.
“It’s great that people on campus can get out there and do that,” she said.
A version of this story ran on page 5 on 10/15/2013 under the headline "Five years later, UF trio still putting a ring on it"
Amanda Hanono, a 20-year-old UF psychology senior, and Brandon Robinson, a 20-year-old UF marketing junior, dance to Beyonce’s “Single Ladies (Put A Ring on It)” on Turlington Plaza on Monday.
