It’s sad when the most exciting part of a performance is
when pickles are raffled off to audience members. Such was the case
when Wade Robson came to UCLA’s Ackerman Grand Ballroom
Tuesday afternoon.
The event, which took place Jan. 21, was promoted as a free
dance lesson with the lauded *NSYNC/Britney Spears choreographer,
but to many students’ utter disappointment, it was no such
thing.
Before Robson came out, UCLA Campus events staff got the
audience into the “Wade-loving” mood by giving his
lunch pickles to a trivia-knowing audience member. It all went
downhill from there.
“I came because I think Wade is amazing!” said
Shifali Dhingra, a first-year communication studies student.
“But it was sort of unacceptable when all he did was talk
about his life ““ I came here to learn from the master dancer,
not to hear him babble.”
And babble he did ““ almost verbatim from his Web site.
Robson dictated his impressive life story (with all the bland
trimmings) to anxious audience members who were looking forward to
bringing out their own inner-Wade.
After what seemed like years of details of his encounters with
Michael Jackson and Britney Spears, there was a brief Q & A
session that Robson handled with a bit of hesitance and
restraint.
Focusing on his superficial pastimes of jet skiing and film
going, Robson didn’t seem like he wanted to get to know the
crowd. Furthermore, many of his answers were a little too quick,
articulate and seemingly planned.
“He didn’t really try to make a connection with the
audience,” said Meenakshi Bhasin, a third-year women’s
studies student. “After the “˜session,’ when I
took a picture with him, he didn’t even make eye contact with
me ““ he stood there like a dead fish looking
forward.”
What frustrated audience members even more was the fact that the
actual dancing aspect of the performance lasted about one minute
““ he didn’t “teach his moves” as the flier
boasted, but rather performed some sort of routine convulsing and
bending his body.
“We came here to learn from him ““ even just a cool
turn or twist would have been fun,” said Ryan Yoshimoto, a
fifth-year political science student. “We can read his Web
site to find out about him, but learning dance moves is what it
should’ve been about.”
Overall, the appearance lacked a personable feel. Though
informative, most of the crowd seemed frustrated in learning more
about his life triumphs rather than his dance moves. If
there’s a dance of disappointment, congratulations Wade, you
choreographed that one, too.