UAAP Cheerdance Competition

1. One official team per UAAP-member university
2. 15-25 UAAP-eligible students
3. Max of 5 spotters/propsmen, in all-black garb
4. Up to 2 substitutes 12 hours before the main competition
5. No interaction between members of the panel judges and participants, coaches and spectators
6. No abusive and profane language
7. No inappropriate and disrespectful action

1. Routines must have
   • School cheer yelled live. Any stunt, pyramid, and tumbling done during the cheer routine will be judged under the cheer category of each element.
   • Dance Routine (50% of total score)
     • Stunts (Lifts and Dismounts)
     • Tosses
     • Pyramids (minimum of 3 pyramids with a maximum of 2.5 high)
     • Tumblings (standing and running)
2. Maximum of 7 snares and 12 bass drums if the venue is Araneta Coliseum; 5 snares and 6 bass drums if the venue is SM Arena
3. Cheerleaders prohibited to be outside the boundary line of 15x20 meters performance area during the performance period
4. Performance must be 4–5 minutes long
5. Time will be stopped once all cheer dancers are no longer in the 15x20 meter performance area

Prior 2009, the panel of judges compose of representative from 8 UAAP-member schools and a representative from a credible gymnastics organizations. In 2009, UAAP replaced the panel of judges with representatives from various cheerleading, dance, and gymnastics organizations.

In 2013, a different way of composing the panel of judges was made. A single judge was assigned in every element in the cheerleading criteria. For the dance criteria, four judges were tasked to judge this particular criteria.

The criteria for judging varies year-on-year. In 2008, the criteria were changed to a more cheerleading-focused point-system, giving a maximum score for each element of cheerleading and/or dancing. For 2013 edition, the criteria were divided into two: cheerleading and dance criteria. Cheerleading criteria were sub-divided into four elements (tumbling, stunt, tosses, and pyramid) with a maximum of 100 points for each element, while the dance criteria, which had a maximum of 100 points per number of judges for dance, were subdivided into four sub-criteria (over-all effectiveness, choreography, technique and execution).

In 2011, UAAP introduced the Group Stunts Competition.

In 2014, 2017 and 2018, only ADMU did not join the competition.

In 2019, ADMU rejoined the competition since last competing in 2011. The same year DLSU did not compete that year.

Year	Host school	Champion	2nd place	3rd place	4th place	5th place	6th place	7th place		Ref.
2011	ADMU	UP	FEU	NU
2012	NU	UP	FEU	NU						[16]
2013	AdU	NU	FEU	UST
2014	UE	FEU 86.17	UST 83.67	NU 79.83	UP 78.33	UE 67.50	AdU 64.17	DLSU 61.33
2015	UP	UST	NU	FEU
2016	UST	NU 83.00	UST 76.33	FEU 68.00	AdU 66.00	UE 64.00
2017	FEU	FEU 76.33	AdU 73.17	UP 72.67	UST 72.17	NU 67.33	DLSU 58.83
2018	NU	NU	FEU	AdU	UE	UST	UP	DLSU
2019	ADMU	NU 237 pts.	FEU 223 pts.	AdU 206 pts.	UE 184 pts.	UST 180 pts.	UP 168 pts.	ADMU 156 pts.

Stunner Awardees

Season	Year	Season host	Person	School of origin
71	2008	UP	Frances Fleta[23]	UP
72	2009	FEU	Sari Campos[24]	ADMU
73	2010	DLSU	Nikka de Dios[25]	DLSU
74	2011	ADMU	Nesza Isabel Salvador[26]	UP
75	2012	NU	Nicolette Erica Ambulo[16]	UP
76	2013	AdU	Ana de Leon[18]	DLSU
77	2014	UE	Camille Isabel Lagmay[27]	UP

Sponsor Awards

Year	Award Name	Awardee	Ref.
2015	Eats so Easy move	Adamson University (AdU)	[1]
	Oishi Oh Wow Surprising move	Far Eastern University (FEU)
	Smart Prepaid Fearless Jump	University of Santo Tomas (UST)
	Yamaha Best Toss	University of the Philippines (UP)
	PLDT Fantastic move	University of the Philippines (UP)
2016	Best Toss	National University (NU)	[28]
	Best Pyramid	National University (NU)
2017	Yamaha Toss	National University (NU)
	Jollibee Inextrahan! Pyramid	Adamson University (AdU)
2018	Yamaha Toss	University of Santo Tomas (UST)	[29]
2019	Juicy Cologne's Juicy-fied Pyramid	Grand winner: National University (NU) 1st runner-up: Adamson University (AdU) 2nd runner-up: University of the Philippines (UP)	[30]
	AXA's Know You Can Stunt (Best in Pyramid)	National University (NU)
	Yamaha's Best Toss	National University (NU)
	Pure Gold's Always Panalo Move	Far Eastern University (FEU)

School colors of
UP and UST

The cheerdance rivalry between UP and UST is one of the most productive rivalries in UAAP history, producing a total of 15 years of joint UP-UST appearances in the podium finishes, including a decade-long streak of joint medal finishes from 1999 to 2008.

The UST Salinggawi Dance Troupe won the first three years of competition from 1994 to 1996.[3] During those years, UP used to send its own dance troupe, the UP Filipiniana Dance Troupe and in the first edition of the contest, UP did not make it to the top three while the UST Salinggawi Dance Troupe reigned supreme. In the 1998 season, UST Salinggawi Dance Troupe did not compete and instead joined the 1st Lipton Cheering Cup Competition. Also in that year, UP established a new pep squad, called UP Varsity Pep Squad, as its official delegate to the competition to replace the UP Filipiniana Dance Troupe.

The rivalry between the two squads began in 1999 when UST returned to reclaim the title after their year of absence. However, they only finished second behind UP Pep Squad. In 2001, UP Pep Squad matched the record of UST's three consecutive wins.

In 2002, UST Salinggawi Dance Troupe regained the title while UP Pep Squad finished third. The next three years had UST Salinggawi Dance Troupe in first place and UP Pep Squad as runner-up. In 2006, UST Salinggawi Dance Troupe received their eighth title via five consecutive victories setting the highest score in the history of the competition while UP Pep Squad finished third on that year.

UP Pep Squad regained the title in 2007 and garnered their fifth title in 2008, with UST as second placer. The UP Pep Squad's goal of a second three-peat was not realized in 2009. In that year, UST failed to enter top three for the first time. In 2010, UP regained the title while UST came back in the podium finishing third. UP had another three-peat after winning the 2011 and 2012 editions - the same years when UST failed to enter top three again.

Neither UP nor UST won the cheerdance tilt in from 2013 to 2015. In 2013, UST had its lowest ranking and settled seventh place. As of 2013, UP never placed outside top three while UST failed to get a podium ranking four times in five years.

In 2014, UST successfully rejoined the podium finish at third place while UP placed second. In 2015, after nine years, UST defeated UP by winning second place while UP settled for third. As of 2015, both teams have identical number of championship titles at eight. UP, despite being dethroned, is by far the most established team for having stayed at the podium for 20 years straight.

In the 2017 edition, UP returned from a one year hiatus but failed to enter the top three. The UP Pep Squad placed 6th with perennial rivals UST Salinggawi Dance Troupe placing second. Both schools, however, did not make podium finishes in the same event since 2018.

School colors of
NU, AdU, UE, and ADMU

In 2013, the National U Pep Squad claimed its first ever championship with an Arabian theme. The UAAP CDC was no longer about the triumvirate namely the FEU Cheering Squad, UST Salinggawi Dance Troupe and UP Varsity Pep Squad which were champions in the previous years. A year later The National U Pep Squad successfully clinched a back to back and furthermore a three-peat in 2015, being the third team to claim a three-peat in the CDC given some controversies. Despite the controversies the National U Pep Squad brought back a four-peat championship in the UAAP CDC with a futuristic theme in 2016 being the second squad to claim a four-peat beside UST Salinggawi Dance Troupe. Unfortunately, in the year 2017 they were not able to clinch a five-peat championship nor enter the top 3 due to low dance scores.

In 2017 the Adamson Pep Squad was crowned the champions with the hashtag 80's for 80. This proved that the underdogs could rise to the challenge of the former champions with the top three of that year containing former underdogs UE Pep Squad as bronze medalist and Adamson Pep Squad as gold medalist. The UST Salinggawi Dance Troupe were the silver medalists of that year. Meanwhile traditional power houses National U Pep Squad, UP Varsity Pep Squad and FEU Cheering Squad were out of the top 3.

In 2018 the National U Pep Squad had its comeback with a 5th Championship in just 6 years. Trailing back are the FEU Cheering Squad with a 70's Funk Theme as the first runner up and 2017 Gold Medalists Adamson Pep Squad with a Lion King theme, being their third straight year at the podium and landing the second runner up for 2018. Scores for the third runner up, UST Salinggawi Dance Troupe were close at a 0.5 margin from the second runner up. 2018 was also the year that the Ateneo Blue Babble Battalion was ranked 7th among all the teams. This was a first for the Blue Babble in 5 years.

In 2019 the National U Pep Squad added 1 more championship up its sleeve getting that 6th Gold Medal finish since 2013. The 2019 CDC edition is known to be the year where each team went out of their own comfort zones, did death defying stunts, difficult and complicated mountings and dismounts of their pyramid, and very synchronized choreography throughout their respective performances. In the end the scores of the 2019 UAAP Cheerdance Competition garnered the highest average of scores since 2012, despite the exact same ranking as the 2018th edition . First runner up, FEU Cheering Squad, comes close with a Michael Jackson Inspired Theme and brought back the Moonwalk stunt previously done in 2009 by the Ateneo Blue Babble Battalion. Second runner up, Adamson Pep Squad, wowed the crowd with a Caribbean-Disco inspired theme. Although the ADU Pep Squad's Last Pyramid (the Caribbean) was not complete they still had a clean run throughout their performance. Thus getting a higher score than the cleaner routines of the 4th placer (UST Salinggawi Dance Troupe) and 5th placer (UE Pep Squad) respectively. The scores for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th runner up were very close. at margins of 1.06 and 0.62.

School colors of
UP and NU

Questions were raised on the results of the 2015 Cheerdance Competition after NU Pep Squad won despite committing multiple errors including falls on their lifts and pyramids. This is in contrast with runners-up UP and UST executing clean programs. The UAAP community in the social media was outraged mainly due to their disbelief of the ranking and allegations of biased judging and corruption. NU claimed that their stunts have higher degree of difficulty compared to other teams. Due to this, UP filed an official complaint for the case detailing several judging inaccuracies but was remained unresolved with UAAP officials.[31][32] As a response to the unresolved issues and to focus on international competitions, UP Pep Squad decided to skip the 2016 competition.[33]