'Michigan Mentality': Karen Heimke crafts new environment for ...

When Karen Heimke enrolled at Eastern Michigan her freshman year, she had no intention of joining the dance team, much less coaching it. Eventually though, peers enticed her to the studio and the Eagles dance team. Amid a season of leadership turnover and transitions, Heimke made her presence known on the team. 

Halfway through Heimke’s freshman season, the head coach of the Eastern Michigan dance team decided to leave the program. With the move, the team became completely student-run and received minimal support or guidance from the university itself. Heimke was eventually handed the reins of the program and became the head coach her freshman year. 

She quite literally fell into coaching.

She had begun college with the dance team not even on her mind, but suddenly she was the face of it. In an instant a colossal amount of responsibility was placed on Heimke’s shoulders. At age 18, she was now accountable for the actions of 26 other dancers. 

“I didn’t love it at first,” Heimke told The Michigan Daily. “But I saw it as a necessity, and if I didn’t do it I didn’t know if anyone would. (I thought) if someone doesn’t take charge, or someone doesn’t do it, then will it be there?”

Quickly, Heimke learned how to advocate for herself and her team. Though she initially had no intention of having any involvement with the dance team, she wound up spending her collegiate years advocating to the university for the importance of the dance team within its community. 

Heimke has brought that same advocate mentality with her as the first year head coach for the Wolverines. And after years of honing her craft, that mindset has only grown. 

Introduced to Michigan as a Universal Dance Association (UDA) nationals consultant, Heimke has since worked her way through the program, eventually earning an assistant coaching role. Then in 2022, the team experienced significant administration transitions and Heimke stepped up and became interim head coach, shepherding the team to finish the 2022 season. Ahead of the 2023 season she was named full-time head coach. 

“When she became head coach I was really excited to see what she’d do with the team,” Michigan assistant coach Deanna Dwyer told The Daily.

What she wound up doing with the team went far beyond dance itself. Heimke implemented a system that subverts the outdated principles much of the dance community experiences. 

The world of dance has commonly been criticized for being negative and toxic, full of cutthroat individuals and out-of-date values. While no one person could possibly create an industry-wide transition, Heimke is certainly making sure that those outdated principles don’t make their way into her studio. 

There is a narrative in the dance community that there is one specific version of a dancer: someone who is technically trained, thin and often reserved. This is not the reality of the Michigan dance team. Instead of diminishing the differences of the dancers on her team, Heimke uplifts them. By not only accepting, but championing the different backgrounds that her dancers come from, she has created a more dynamic team. 

Heimke pushes her dancers to their fullest potential, but not at the cost of harming their mental well-being. This balance isn’t a new issue in competitive sports, but in an environment as vulnerable as a dance studio, it’s critical. Heimke makes sure to take care of her dancers and support them. And she does so while refusing to sacrifice success. 

“It’s definitely a balance because I don’t want them to be comfortable and I want them to fight for themselves,” Heimke said. “But then I also want them to respect the fact that maybe a friend or a teammate, who isn’t in that dance, that their journey is different.”

Heimke had the resume and prowess that hinted at immense success when she joined the Wolverines. And 2023 was the season for this to come to fruition, as her team completed two top-ten finishes at UDA’s. She went into the season with clear expectations; she wanted success for her team — but more importantly she wanted to implement a new Michigan mentality. 

“It’s almost like a different team,” junior dancer Anjali Petrucci told The Daily. “When Karen came in it was like the new Michigan mentality and that was great. She was breaking the barriers of needing to be a perfectionist and instead just staying true to yourself.”

“For us from us” is the central motto that guides the Michigan dance team. Supporting one another inside the studio and out is something that Heimke has encouraged from the beginning of her time impacting this team. She believes that success is only possible when you first believe it yourself, and she instills this into her dancers. The number one supporter of the dance team is the team itself. The Wolverines believe victory is possible and this season they proved that to be true. 

Michigan felt the impact of this new mentality inwardly as it worked day in and day out towards UDA’s. But what it may not have expected was that this new mentality found its way outside the walls of the studio and into the larger community. 

Heimke made sure that her team was a constant presence in the University of Michigan community, even when it didn’t receive the appreciation it may have deserved. She instilled the belief that if the team continued to show up for others, one day this appreciation would be reciprocated. In 2024 it finally was.

While the dance team was in Orlando competing at nationals, a shift was happening in recognizing the dance world. UDA’s had gained popularity on Tiktok, and the dance team was beginning to get a fraction of the recognition it deserved. Suddenly, to those outside the studio, the dance team was more than just a presence on the sidelines of basketball and football games. By focusing on themselves and achieving immense success, the team had proved themselves to be worthy of recognition. And Heimke’s mentality made that possible.

“For the dance world to have that much chatter in such a positive way,” Heimke said. “It really validated the work that we did.”

This appreciation wouldn’t have been possible without Heimke’s hard work of integrating herself and her team into the U-M community. Heimke preaches the importance of supporting her people and her community. And in just her first year as permanent head coach, she showed the impact that her mentality has, and she backs it up by going to bat for the people she believes in. 

Dwyer joined the Michigan dance team in her sophomore year. Cut the summer before her freshman year, Dwyer returned her sophomore year and went on to become rookie of the year and eventually a captain. As Dwyer’s time on the team began to wrap up, Heimke called upon her to join the following season as an assistant coach. The move was met with mixed reviews. While Hemike was confident in her decision to add Dwyer, others weren’t thrilled.  

Questions were raised about Dwyer’s leadership ability, her age and whether she was really the right person for the job. But as a new coach herself, Heimke stood up for Dwyer, exemplifying the advocate that she is and continues to be.

“(Heimke) got some initial pushback that I was too young and I had just graduated and was teammates with a lot of the girls, which are all really real concerns,” Dwyer said. “But she was just like, ‘No, Deanna’s a make it or break it for me.’ And I was really fortunate that she fought for me.”

Heimke didn’t just fight for Dwyer and her dancers themselves. She also fought against the toxicity of the dance world. In her first season as full time head coach, Heimke has implemented an environment filled to the brim with support and passion.

For someone who didn’t see herself as a natural-born leader or coach, Heimke has quickly proven she’s capable of both. 

“I definitely feel like we’ve hit a good rhythm of what my expectations are for myself and what my expectations are for the team,” Heimke said. “I’m just learning every day, it’s not a job that has a manual or a handbook.”

Building the program’s success while ushering in a new era of the Michigan dance team centered around the “Michigan Mentality” Heimke has proved herself to be the right person to lead this team. She continues to advocate for herself and her team while helping her dancers complete at the highest level. 

Heimke might’ve fallen into coaching, but she certainly landed on her feet.