Colorful geometric sweatshirts, tight jean skirts, hard-hitting hip-hop and pinpointed synchronization proved the winning formula for Kinematix last night. Northeastern’s urban dance troupe won the debut “Dance For Me” competition before a packed Curry Student Center (CSC) Ballroom.
Sophomore Sophia Fong, a member of Kinematix and a physical therapy major, said she was excited to win the event on her 21st birthday.
“It was awesome,” she said. “We practiced this morning for four hours, so it was pretty intense. We hyped it up. We did formation changes and we worked hard, really hard.”
The group, which boasted about two-dozen members, began its performance with a tongue-in-cheek waltz, but quickly switched to hip-hop beats like Snoop Dogg’s “Sensual Seduction” and remixes featuring musicians like Sean Paul.
Sophomore physical therapy major Emma Vargas went to the event to see Kinematix perform, and was pleased that they took home the first-place trophy.
“I think they were the best, so they deserved to win. There were a lot of people [in the group] but they did well on stage,” she said. “They’re an urban dance group and they definitely portrayed that through their costumes and their dancing.”
The contest was co-sponsored by UTSAV, Northeastern’s South Asian Student Organization, and Barkada, the university’s Filipino student organization.
UTSAV president Rishi Palriwala, a senior entrepreneurial business and finance major who spearheaded the event, said he based the idea for the competition on Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance” television show because he wanted to give students a broader platform to show off their moves.
“Last fall I decided there needed to be some way for the organizations on campus or the people of Northeastern to show their dance abilities because I know there’s a lot,” he said. “I was like, there needs to be some sort of organized event where they can show off everything they have.”
Palriwala estimated that about 70 students performed and produced “Dance For Me.”
In addition to UTSAV, Barkada and Kinematix, represented student groups included Northeastern’s African student organization (NASO), the Latin American Student Organization (LASO) and Jumpstart, a program that improves pre-schoolers’ school and social skills by pairing them with college students.
Each group brought a different flavor and style to the event. LASO’s performance group, “Caliente,” featured three women wearing bright red dresses performing traditional Latin dances with male counterparts, while NASO fused traditional African dancing with modern beats to earn runners-up honors.
Barkada’s “Tinikling” performance featured dancers jumping in and out of 12-foot bamboo polls as they were opened and closed by other group members. By the end of the event, the jumping dancers upped the ante by blindfolding themselves.
To judge the competition, Palriwala enlisted the help of three judges, including Bob Grier, the director of CSC Operations.
“I think the richness of this whole experience is the ability and the opportunity for students to just bring out their own culture,” Grier said after the show. “These people, some of them are first generation, second generation, third generation, fourth generation Americans, and they can still hold on to that culture. People can embrace it.”
