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Volume CXXXIII, Number 15 |
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Urban dancers rock Smith Union birthday
LEAH CHERNIKOFF
STAFF WRITER
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| Members of the Break! dance group show off their moves in a celebrtation for the ninth anniversary of Smith Union. The NYC-based group showcased popping and locking and breaking dance styles. (Jennifer Lee, Bowdoin Orient) |
Bowdoin got a much welcome dose of popping, locking, breaking, tumbling, spinning, and even roller-skating last Thursday night when Break!, a fresh and innovative urban dance group equipped with a DJ, performed for the ninth anniversary of Smith Union. Bowdoin students were uncharacteristically loud and rowdy thanks to the energy and talent of Break!, even rousing a Bowdoin professor to show off his own unique dance skills on stage.
Based in New York City, Break! has been together for five years, touring all over the country, and just returned from its world tour to pay Brunswick a visit. While the group company morphs according to venue size, adding more dancers for larger spaces, for our small stage in Morrell Lounge, Break! came with six dancers and their renowned DJ Slynkee from the "Rock Steady Crew."
The group showcased two genres of urban-based dance: popping and locking (which they emphasized is not called "pop-n-lock" despite what the Darren's Dance Grooves advertised on MTV says-they are two separate dance styles) and breaking (not "break-dancing"), with three dancers for each genre.
Angel Feliciano, Alex "Kid Dynamite" Polanco, and "Lockin Q" showed off their popping and locking skills, demonstrating honed isolations of their bodies, contracting and releasing with impeccable rhythm. While the animated facial expressions and energetic in-your-face attitude of the bow-tied "Kid Dynamite" engaged the audience, it was Angel Feliciano's superior skill that stood out. With an impish grin and oozing "cool," Feliciano's moves looked effortless, making him a blast to watch.
B-Boys G.I., Excel, and B-Girl Twist brought a tough edge to the cool of the popping and locking, emulating a "battle" in which the dancers tried to out-do each other, demonstrating incredible strength during seemingly-impossible freezes on one hand, as well as dizzying spins. From my seat in the audience, I could only see sneakered feet flying where their heads should have been.
But the dancers of Break! were not the only stars of their show. Calling on audience volunteers to come on stage and show off their dance skills, Bowdoin students and even a professor proved themselves up to the challenge. Senior Marie Jo Felix riled up the crowd, intimidating even "Kid Dynamite" as she demonstrated her provocative moves on him.
But most memorable was History and Asian Studies professor Kidder Smith, who truly danced to his own beat despite the one provided by Slynkee, looking floaty and ethereal, some moves that, Feliciano confided to me after the show, he was going to have to steal. All in all, the performance was a success, and both audience and dancers were grinning after a great show.
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