THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10,2002
MUSIC
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN -5
Hip-hop dance troupe more than just freestyle
By Leslie Kimmel
lkimmel@kansan.com
Jayplaywriter
Maya Tillman, Hutchinson senior, doesn't want people to take hip-hop dance lightly.
The Unity Dance Troupe practices one of its routines. The group choreographs and performs dances to pop, R&B and hip-hop music.
Tillman is a member of the Unity Dance Troupe, a hip-hop dance group. The three-year member said that, although some thought of hip-hop dance as a type of dance without rules, it was a structured type of dance that fell somewhere between jazz and freestyle.
Kansan file photo
Ashley Love, Kansas City, Kan., senior and four-year Unity Dance Troupe member, agrees that hip-hop isn't all about freestyle dance.
"A lot of people think of hip-hop as free," Love said. "There are rules and technical aspects of hip-hop."
Love said balance and stability are as important in hip-hop as they are in any other type of dance. Hip-hop dances were also composed of specific hip-hop dance steps.
man said. "Break dancing can be considered more hip-hop."
"There are a lot of dances that don't have names to them, but there are a lot of dance (steps) like the Harlem shakedown," Till-
The Unity Dance Troupe is a group of 17 members who perform choreographed hip-hop routines to pop, R&B and hip-hop songs. Love said members were encouraged to choose songs and then pair up with three or four other members to choreograph a dance.
"Everybody is a choreographer. You have to contribute," Love said. "It's a requirement to be a member."
Elora Gregory, Kansas City, Kan., sophomore, said hip-hop dance broke out of the structured mold and became more like freestyle because it allowed the dancer to bring his or her own style into the choreographed dance.
"You learn a routine in uniform, but you can always put your little style into it," said Gregory, first-year Unity member. "That is the whole idea of it—to incorporate your type of style and your type of dancing."
Tillman also said hip-hop allowed for variations in pace and formations, which was how she added her personal touch to the dance.
"Igo for a lot of fast, intricate movements. I'm really big on just moving." Tillman said.
Both Tillman and Love said that, although hip-hop dance had traditionally been thought of as a predominately African-American type of dance, it reached all types of people. The Unity Dance Troupe has members of several races.
"That is one thing that we have in common is our love for hip-hop,"Tillman said.
"So even if in society it's seen as stereotypically African American, it extends across the black culture boundary."
The Unity Dance Troupe is scheduled to perform its hip-hop routines today at the pep rally in Memorial Stadium, and again tomorrow during Late Night with Roy Williams in Allen Fieldhouse.