Weekends for UCLA Athletics manifest themselves as grand productions, spectacles of sports and commotion with athletic prowess and excited crowds.
Saturdays at the Rose Bowl are filled with lights, performances and passion as thousands of fans gather to support UCLA football.
While the main event lies on the gridiron, other athletes and performers entertain the crowd to create an irreplaceable atmosphere.
Baton twirlers Benjamin Zietz and Angelina Chen – both UCLA seniors – showcase their own unique skills to entertain the crowd alongside the band’s instruments that echo throughout the stadium. Zietz and Chen have been best friends for seven years, twirling baton together throughout high school, college and in competitions. Baton twirling is a sport that features a performance involving gymnastics, dance and handling one, two or three batons at once.
Zietz said that despite the pressure that twirling brings, he enjoys performing in front of the Bruin crowd.
“The general public does not know what a difficult skill looks like usually,” Zietz said. “But being able to show the public what it is, it’s kind of like spreading our passion with the rest of the UCLA community.”
The duo practices nearly every day, constantly working on their skills alongside UCLA’s band or on their own for up to seven hours. While they usually train in one of UCLA’s gyms, they’re often learning on FaceTime.
Their coach, Liane Aramaki, works with Zietz and Chen all the way from San Diego. She has her own club in Southern California and was inspired at just 5 years old to compete and coach twirling by her mother, who also competed and served as her coach.
Aramaki performed as the USC Feature Twirler from 1990-1996. She has been the head coach for the Legends Baton Club since 2005, and since then has traveled internationally with her students.
Aramaki said she enjoys watching her students compete at any level.
“It’s the same intensity and the same excitement for me,” Aramaki said. “All of their hard work that they’ve done over the last five, six years is what makes it more special than anything else.”
During the year, Zietz and Chen can be seen performing at the Rose Bowl and Pauley Pavilion for UCLA football and basketball. While they predominantly twirl with the band, sometimes they have their own numbers where they showcase their talents alone.
But this summer, Zietz and Chen represented Team USA at the 2023 World Baton Twirling Championship and Nations Cup in Liverpool, England. Over 1,200 athletes from 21 countries participated in 11 different events, intricately handling and throwing the baton while simultaneously performing with precision for the highest score possible.
Zietz competed in the men’s division, which consisted of about 15 other men from around the world. He earned the gold medal in the Senior Men’s Level A Three-Baton, a bronze medal in Level A Two-Baton as well as fifth place in Level A Solo and Artistic Twirl.
For this year’s Nations Cup, the International Baton Twirling Federation implemented rules for each discipline of baton twirling. There are two levels, Level A and Level B, which obtain different content restrictions for each type of competition. For example, while in Level A the athlete can complete two spins, in Level B the athlete can only complete one.
Chen placed fourth in the Senior Women’s Level A X-Strut, a type of choreography specifically for female athletes. In an “X” formation, the baton compliments marching movements to march music. She competed against nine other women from the United States, Italy, Australia and Canada.
Chen said that given that this was their first international competition together, it was fun getting to compete with both Zietz and other athletes from different countries.
“Sometimes we wouldn’t be able to communicate with them (other athletes) properly, so we’d just pull up Google Translate,” Chen said. “I thought that was a really unique experience that I’ve never had to do before.”
As their time performing at UCLA is coming to a close, Chen said she is looking forward to becoming a certified judge. Zietz will continue to twirl and plans to coach young children while setting an example for those who want to perform in the collegiate atmosphere like he has.
“Baton has definitely shaped both of us a lot,” Chen said. “It played a huge role in our growth in high school and college, and representing our college is such an honor and something that we’re so grateful for.”
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