| For the third year in a row college and university dance teams competed in Bust-A-Move at Durham College and UOIT. March 27 the annual BAM competition was held at Durham College at 9 a.m. A large audience sat in the bleachers in the campus Health and Wellness Centre to watch more than 15 dance teams from several universities and colleges compete for cash prizes and dance scholarships sponsored by Be Discovered to attend dance classes in New York City, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Dancers also had the opportunity to perform in front of Miles Faber, a contestant from season one of CTV’s So You Think You Can Dance Canada who judged the competition. Wendy Graham, a second-year Accounting student at Durham College, dances for TDU Dynamix and said they were a little more nervous than usual. “Having Miles Faber there was more of a physical distraction,” said Graham. “But it definitely didn’t help having him there.” This year there are three teams that represent Durham College and UOIT. The UOIT Ridgebacks Dance Pack, H.E.R. and TDU Dynamix. After UOIT Ridgebacks Dance Pack became a varsity team this season, other dancers from Durham College formed their own dance groups. HER (Hip-Hop in its Essence and Realness) competes with primarily hip-hop routines while TDU Dynamix competes in jazz, tap, contemporary, lyrical and hip-hop. Even though the teams have split, they still show support for one another while competing. There were 114 dance routines entered into the competition and other teams from Ryerson University, Wilfrid Laurier University, Humber College and Brock University among others danced their hardest to impress the judges. Graham said her favourite part of the competition is having the schools all together. “It seems that every year that BAM has been around, all the schools seem to get along great,” said Graham. “There is no rudeness and everybody is there for the same reason. We all get to share our passion for dance past pink tutus and hair curlers.” Judges Stacey Gonder, Christine Tavares, Katarina Rajkovic-Corbic and Faber gave out a number of special awards to dance routines that deserved recognition. Frank Wilson and Nicollette Evans of the UOIT Ridgebacks Dance Pack won an award for special chemistry titled Two Peas in a Pod for their hip-hop duet Rice and Peas. In the same category, Majoire Santos and Cindy Hau won a special award titled Don’t Hate the Playa, Hate the Game given by Miles Faber for their routine Elevator. Graham’s mother, Caroline spent eight hours of her day at the competition watching her daughter and the other teams perform. “Wendy has been dancing since she was a little girl,” she said. “The dance team at Durham College is a great way for her to continue her passion for dance while she goes to school.” The UOIT Ridgebacks Dance Pack managed to leave the competition with the second place top small group overall with their routine Winter. Coming in first in the same category was H.E.R. with their hip-hop routine Geekfreaks. “We did extremely well for our first year as a team,” said Graham. “Took home some overall awards, a lot of overall awards and some amazing scores and I look forward to next year.” Now that the season is over for the dance teams, they will wait until September to hold auditions for the 2010-2011 season. |
Lindsay Taylor
BUST-A-MOVE: Kelly Vanleyden (left) and Wendy Graham (right) are a part of the group TDU Dynamix, one of the three teams representing Durham College and UOIT.
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