Luhnyae Campbell performs for the world at Rihanna's Super Bowl Halftime Show

When Luhnyae Campbell talks about her experience dancing in the Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show with Rihanna and hundreds of other dancers, she speaks with an enchanted tone, almost as if it was all a dream. And for her, it was one that came true.

“There were so many emotions [that day]. I was crying because of how joyous I was,” Campbell said. “When I listen to the recording of the performance, to this day, I cry like it’s still the day of. I get the chills, the goosebumps, everything.”

On getting her start in dance

*A photo from childhood, courtesy of Campbell.*

Growing up, Campbell never danced in a professional studio. Instead, she performed in front of her stuffed animals and Bratz Dolls, singing and dancing in her home until she had the courage to perform Bruno Mars’ “When I Was Your Man” at her elementary school’s talent show. (“I didn’t let it all out on the stage. I was definitely one of those kids who just stood in front of the mic, scared shitless and just singing my ass off,” she said.

It wasn’t until the end of her freshman year in high school that she considered auditioning for her school’s dance team — and even that was a game time decision.

“I didn’t even know about auditions till the day of. I was highly unprepared and didn’t know what I was getting into, but I just knew I wanted to try,” she said.

Campbell surprised herself and got into Intermediate Dance, which she began in her sophomore year, and danced with a hip hop crew until her senior year. She graduated in 2020 and never got to perform her final senior dance because of the pandemic, putting her passion on hold until Arizona opened up again. Her first dance class? A heels class her friends encouraged her to join.

“I felt like the love for dance came back to me again.”

On auditioning for the Super Bowl Halftime Show

Campbell was halfway through her junior year of college when she heard about the Super Bowl Halftime Show auditions through a friend who was a Dance major.

“I told myself I’d rather try things just to see how it goes than not. That’s what drew me to auditioning, especially since it was Rihanna,” she said. “And I was like, shoot, if I make it, that means I get to watch the Halftime Show for free.”

She and five of her friends decided to try out for it, renting a studio for two hours to learn the piece and submit their audition videos. The audition instructions didn’t include a song, but they did provide the beats per minute, which gave the dancers the freedom to interpret the choreography in their own way. Campbell chose Rihanna’s “Rude Boy” reggae performance from the 2016 VMAs to soundtrack her dance because “it had the perfect grit and grime and sass to the choreo they provided.”

She found out she got the gig when she received an email notification while crocheting on her couch, watching “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” It felt too good to be true.

“I was just making some granny squares like I was in my grandma era and then weeks later, I was dancing in the field with Rihanna!”

On preparing for rehearsals

When it came time for rehearsals, surprisingly, wardrobe came first. As part of the audition submission, dancers had to include their sizing info, so when they accepted the gig, the famous marshmallow suit would be waiting for them.

Because of the suit’s large and heavy canvas material, the field dancers learned to exaggerate their movements to get the dance across. “If you were doing a head nod, it wasn’t a simple thing. You were slamming your whole upper spinal area like you were Nate Jacobs having a mental breakdown and slamming his head on the floor,” Campbell said, referencing a scene from the show “Euphoria.”

Getting fitted for her suit helped mentally prepare her for what was to come next: An intense few weeks of almost nonstop dance, leading up to one of the biggest shows in the world.

On working with visionaries

For the Arizona field dancers like Campbell, rehearsals were held almost daily for six to seven hours at a time, some even nine to 10 hours long. The dancers practiced for two and a half weeks, splitting time between the football field next to State Farm Stadium, where the Super Bowl would be held, and the stadium itself.

Rehearsals in the adjacent field were led by esteemed choreographer Parris Goebel’s assistant Gab, who went the extra mile to ensure that the hundreds of dancers looked “perfect,” according to Campbell.

The field dancers got to work with Goebel when rehearsing in the stadium, the week before the show. The choreographer emphasized the fun behind dancing, which ignited a fire in all of them. According to Campbell, Goebel told them, “You’re not just dancing to count the numbers and be perfect. Scream when you dance, yell, enjoy it, feel it!”

“They’re all visionaries — Gab, Parris, Rihanna,” Campbell said. “They just pick up on the little things within the music and they really bring it to life. That’s what I loved about working with them.”

“They’re all visionaries — Gab, Parris, Rihanna,” Campbell said. “They just pick up on the little things within the music and they really bring it to life. That’s what I loved about working with them.”

Carrying out the intricate choreography with hundreds of dancers also unlocked something new in Campbell. She loved that her fellow dancers came from different backgrounds and were different ages. Everyone brought something unique to the table.

“Sharing this experience with so many people was so connecting. Humans, we’re such a tribal species. This was really spiritually uplifting to me,” she said. “Feeling the passion of that many people makes you want to succeed, run a 5K, make your life better. It was inspiring being around all of these people.”

On rehearsing with Rihanna

As someone who grew up listening to Rihanna from a young age and following her career journey, it was a dream come true to share the stage with the artist, Campbell said. Her work ethic “put this fire beneath my ass.”

“You can see how she’s so genuinely passionate about everything,” she said. “During rehearsals, there was always a glow to her. She would smile when she was on stage and when she wasn’t smiling, it was because she was giving those grimy, bad-ass moments to the performance.”

And the cherry on top? Campbell and the dancers rehearsed with headsets on, so they heard a live feed of Rihanna singing in their ears, as if the artist was singing personally to them.

On performing at the Super Bowl

On February 12, 2023, it was game time for the Kansas City Chiefs, the Philadelphia Eagles, hundreds of dancers, and Campbell.

Before the Halftime Show, the dancers got dressed in the adjacent stadium, hyping each other up while running on adrenaline. The crew behind the show cheered them on, sharing encouragement through their headsets. “You’re going to do amazing! We’re so proud!”

“Every person — dancer or not — was so excited for this show,” Campbell said. “You could really feel it beforehand.”

When it was time to run into the stadium, the dancers yelled and screamed as they spilled out onto the field with their arms wide open. For Campbell, there were so many emotions running through her, but the biggest one was joy.

“The one part I’ll never be able to recreate in my mind is the crowd. How big it was, the cameras, the fact that this was a global thing and I’m in it.”

On sharing her experience with the world

While rehearsing for the Halftime Show, Campbell was under a strict NDA — even her college professors didn’t know exactly why she was skipping classes before the Big Game. But after the show, the NDA was lifted and she was encouraged to share her story on TikTok by those in her women’s empowerment group. “I didn’t want to gatekeep that feeling,” she said. “I was going to explode.”

Cambell’s TikToks were met with a mix of positive and negative reactions. Her Filipino community was incredibly supportive (“When you’re Filipino, everybody is family”), but some members of the dance community were quick to criticize — about the amount Campbell was posting, her role in the Halftime Show as a field dancer, and how her videos were “riding off of Rihanna’s fame.”

At one point, the positive comments felt just as bad as the negative ones, but Campbell pulled herself out of the imposter syndrome she felt. “At the end of the day, all of our titles end in ‘dancer.’ We all share the same love for dance and I don’t want them to take that away from me.”

When recalling this life-changing experience, Campbell feels a mix of surreality and gratitude. Being part of such a global event couldn’t have happened if it were not for her discovering a love for dance at a young age and last-minute auditioning for a team in high school.

“I’m not someone who grew up in a dance studio or does dance consistently,” Campbell said. “The one thing that set me apart is that I tried.” And look where that got her — dancing her heart out at the Super Bowl Halftime Show with Rihanna.

Here are Luhnyae Campbell’s 12 songs, designed by the dancer herself.