ASA serves up charity dance competition
Erik Hayner
Staff Writer
While waiting in line to purchase tickets, I found myself getting more and more excited by all of the colorful dancers walking about. I watched one girl walk by in a large blue shirt and an oversized spotted tie with large square framed glasses. It felt like a more intimate version of the show America’s Best Dance Crew on MTV.
It was, after all, the Lake County’s Best Dance Crew (LCBDC) competition. The doors opened at 6 p.m. on March 19. The event was held by the CLC’s Asian Student Alliance (ASA) to benefit a nonprofit organization, 3Doves.
I walked into room C005 to find it relatively crowded with a close-knit audience. The environment was intimate and friendly. Everyone was excited to see friends and peers dance in the show.
The show kicked off with a large exhibition dance crew introducing us to the multitudinous talent of students from CLC to the Chicagoland area. The audience was immediately ready to hoot and holler as the performers showcased various steps and hand movements and the balance and control of the break-dancers.
After being introduced to the feeling of a hip hop dance show in person, three leaders from the ASA stood on stage to welcome us to the first year of Lake County’s Best Dance Crew. One leader danced in the first show, and had the sweat to show for it.
The participants came from locations all over the Illinois area, included quite a few CLC students, students from Loyola, UIC, and elsewhere.
Before the rest of the dance show began, the hosts took the time to acknowledge the larger goal behind the dance competition and introduced the representative from 3Doves, Jason Dela Cruz. Dela Cruz presented the audience with a PowerPoint of the Filipino children and families the 3Doves foundation supports.
He thanked the audience for their participation and talked about the typhoon on Sept. 29, 2009. He invited the audience to be a part of the events his foundation has planned for the future. He expects a large turnout for the parties they have planned and mentioned a possible following dance event sometime in the future.
The hosts explained that there would be two types of groups performing that night. The exhibition dance groups and competition groups alternated performing. One of the dance groups had to bow out later in the night, so there wound up being four competition groups and five exhibition groups.
The competing groups would be critiqued by three guest judges who work at or attend CLC. Felicia Ganther is the executive director of Student Life. Students may know her as the woman who gives the speech at introduction to CLC events. Josh Beyda is the clerk at the Multicultural Center, and Ben Aparte is a dancer and student.
The first group up was “Pushstart.” Their members were clad in black tee shirts with a yellow customized logo on the front and fedoras angled to the side. They worked a storyline dance based around the female member of their group in a “get the girl” scenario. They played Kanye West and Lil’ Wayne to start, and the music changed throughout the routine. They stood in front of the female performer as she changed into different clothes toward the end of performance.
The audience loved them and cheered loudly as the men on stage bowed to the female performer.
The group “Megapixels” performed next. They wore colorful blue and orange track jackets and sunglasses. The personality of the group stood out as much as their timing and attention to detail. They exuded confidence and humor, which was recognized in the message relayed before their performance.
“They want to spread their sexiness around the world,” the hosts said.
After five groups had performed there was a break for intermission. One of the hosts came back onto the stage with the rest of his musical group, One Persona, to perform. They played several songs, including a couple originals and a medley of a few songs by Lady Gaga. There were two singers, a drummer, a keyboardist, and a bassist. It was a pleasant, light-hearted set with funny lyrics harmonized between the tenors nicely.
Super Saiyan Five or SS5 had dyed hair with jagged parts, bandanas, jeans and black shirts. Their title refers to the Japanese animated television show “Dragon Ball Z.” The group is comprised of five choreographers who worked with some of the other groups on stage who performed that night.
It was evident they were professionals when they performed. They started out creating a platform with one member crouched down holding another up, the others standing around in a human construction. The way they organized the styles of movement they used was expertly designed. The crowd seemed impressed with their creativity and referenced their namesake with a “kamehameha!” at the beginning.
“Ten beats and one heart,” or 101, was the last group competing. They began with couples onstage and creative musings on ballroom and tango steps. The females in the group really took the performance up a notch with their enthusiasm. They were a joy to watch and continued the real competition between the groups.
The last exhibition group performed spectacularly, as they had opened up for some groups from America’s Best Dance Crew in the past. They opened the stage for the competing groups to all fit in with the three guest judges. Ganther was first to take the microphone, doing a vibrant impression of Lil’ Mama, one of the judges on America’s Best Dance Crew.
“Can I get a slow-mo?” She said, as Lil’ Mama would.
She called for the slow motion replay of some of the more intricate moves of some groups. As she did this two of the groups took liberty to show some slow-mo intricacies of their own with no technology necessary. Ganther, Beyda, and Aparte generally concurred on their criticisms and compliments of the groups and, after deliberating, came to a final result.
Megapixels took home the second place trophy and SS5 won overall.
The music started to play again and everyone on stage showcased their improvised talents. It was really a ball to watch all of these talented students perform and see them in their element.
It was all capped off by the announcement that the event raised $836 in support of the Philippines.
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