Lexi Sullivan: FSU Golden Girl

Heather Ainsley
ECB Publishing, Inc.

For Alexis Sullivan, dance has been a passion and priority for the past several years of her life. She began dancing at a competitive dance studio out of Tallahassee called Dance Fusion Studios when she was in 9th grade, and performed on their competitive dance team for five years.
After graduating from Leon High School in 2019, Lexi moved on to attend Florida State University, where she studies currently, and this year, her experiences in competitive dance have led her to the honor of being named one of FSU's very own Golden Girls.
The FSU Golden Girls are a part of the FSU spirit program. Golden Girls get to perform dance routines at the home football games, women's volleyball games and men's basketball games. Over 200 girls from across the nation try out each year in the hopes of being a Golden Girl.
For Lexi, this has been a life-long ambition. Her mother, Ashli Sullivan, says it was Lexi's dream to be a Golden Girl ever since she attended her first FSU football game when she was just five years old. According to her mother, Lexi was eager to seek them out at every game that she attended since. The competition to become a Golden Girl is extensive, and the girls are scored on several different categories of dance. To be chosen out of hundreds of other talented women is a high achievement.
Being a Golden Girl isn't just about dance, however. The FSU Golden Girls team serves as ambassadors for their school, and in addition to performing at various sports events, each team member is also involved in other events held by both the school and within the community. Each Golden Girl must maintain a GPA of 2.5 each semester as a full-time student, and must achieve an overall cumulative FSU GPA of 2.0, with a minimum of 10 hours of community service per semester. Additionally, each performer must commit to practice and workouts to maintain their skills. The team gathers three times every week for practice and training, with workouts and strength conditioning sessions twice a week with a professional coach.
This January, the team competed in the National UDA Competition, and placed third in the nation for Jazz and ninth in the nation for Hip Hop. Often, the team performs in national competitions, representing their school and even the country. In fact, it was just announced that the Golden Girls were selected as the 2023 U.S. National Jazz Team for the 2023 International Cheer Union (ICU) World Championships. This means that this April, Lexi and her team will take to the world stage and represent not just their school, but their entire country, with feats of artistry, technique and precision in dance. They will compete against teams from all over the world, including Japan, Mexico and the U.K.
For Ashli, seeing her daughter smiling on stage and out on the field is highly rewarding.
“I'm just excited that she is getting to live her dream,” says Ashli. “She loves being on the field and on stage!”
The experience of being a Golden Girl is likely to be the remarkable end of Lexi's dancing career, although her mother says that she may continue to teach dance at Dance Fusion Studios if her busy schedule allows. Upon graduation, Lexi plans on becoming an elementary school teacher.
While Lexi herself lives in Leon County, she comes from a family that has deep roots in the Monticello community. Both sets of her great-grandparents, JB (former sheriff of Jefferson County) and Stella Thomas, and Joe (former head of the road department) and Minnie Sullivan, were each born and raised in Monticello, and her late grandparents, Bill and Martha Sullivan, were also lifelong locals. Her mother and her uncle, J'son Sullivan, also come from the area, and both graduated from Aucilla Christian Academy.
When she isn't hard at work maintaining her busy schedule of college classes, training and community service, Lexi enjoys reading, taking photos and spending time at the beach with her family.