UNI DANCES HAVE become decayed phenomena, artifacts from the days of enthusiastic school spirit and reasonable attendance at school-sponsored events.

The pulsing crowds of dancers consisting of not only Uni students but many foreigners trekking in from other high schools have been replaced by trains of subfreshmen forming conga lines, and clumps of upperclassmen standing and mumbling, eventually departing disappointed.

The attendance is low, and suddenly bake sales can raise clubs and classes just as much money as a dance.

One has to admire the few who have tried to save the Uni dance, such as the girls who step up onto the platform, ignoring the relatively deserted dance floor, shedding any self-conscious sentiments, and dancing like they would in the “good old days” before grinding was banned.

Kareem Sayegh helps sophomore Tuli Bera during a practice as Karolina Kalbarczyk looks on. Gargoyle photo by Sindha Agha (click to enlarge).

Of course, they keep the necessary distance between their bodies to avoid the much-condemned promiscuous dancing that our generation has fondly taken to. They are the brave ones, veterans of the ongoing battle with the administration regarding “inappropriate” and “overly sexual” dancing.

There were the attempted solutions: funk dances and salsa dances.

They were noble efforts, but never ultimately successful. However, every conga line-ridden nightmare deserves a savior, and the Uni dance is no exception ….

It was the highly clichéd and predictable movie “Step Up 2: The Streets” that inspired junior Kareem Sayegh to save the Uni dance in an entirely new form: a dance crew.

“Me, Karolina [Kalbarczyk], Natsuki [Nakamura], and others went and saw ‘Step Up 2’ and jokingly said we should start a crew,” recalls Sayegh. “‘America’s Best Dance Crew’ came out and it was really cool, so me and Karolina decided to put this thing together.”

“This thing” refers to Uni’s own dance crew, Tempe Fugi, which is a group of about 10 students, all with dancing talent or experience, ranging from subfreshmen to juniors. Joining Sayegh as creators of the crew are fellow juniors Nakamura and Kalbarczyk.

“There are a lot of people on our crew who have danced before,” Sayegh explains. “We have a large contingency of ballerinas in our group who bring a lot of experience and flexibility to our crew. [Junior] Alan Liang is a footworks genius, I’ve dabbled in break dancing, and [freshman] Kahlilah Cooke has done a lot of dance before. For the people with little or no experience on our crew — they learn very quickly and have their own talents. Natsuki, for instance, has a lot of martial arts experience and is an essential part of our group.”

It wasn’t very hard for Kalbarczyk, Nakamura, and Sayegh to convince people to join. Although the crew is invitation only, all of the people invited to participate agreed.

The decision to make the crew invitation only was based on the need for strong participation and good cohesion.

“If we just kept on getting random people, we wouldn’t accomplish anything,” Sayegh explains.

The dance crew will debut, hopefully, April 26 at the Spring Fling. (The dance was originally scheduled for Saturday, April 12, but the freshman class officers postponed it; they are waiting to hear from locations about availability for the evening.)

The crew members plan on bringing a new energy to the dance floor with a choreographed routine.

“I want to start by increasing the attendance at dances,” Sayegh says.

For now the crew will rehearse vigorously, spending the time they have until Spring Fling to teach each other what they know about dancing and choreograph their dance.

“Due to the wide variety of styles we share in the group, the dancing will be fresh,” says Sayegh.
“It’s mainly hip-hop, but it’s infused with ballet, martial arts, pop-lock, and a whole bunch of other stuff.”

MORE PHOTOS: THE CREW AT WORK

Juniors Nish Nookala and Ben Daniels work on their break-dancing skills. Gargoyle photos by Sindha Agha (click any photo to create your own slideshow)

The crew dancing.

Subfreshman Hoda Sayegh tries out some moves.

Kareem practices at lunch.