It started in Ackerman Student Union, in the textbook buyback center.
Last fall, fourth-year world arts and cultures/dance student Kevin Belisario met his coworker, fourth-year sociology student Mike Wamungu, at their job at the student union. One day at work, after hearing Wamungu could dance, Belisario invited him to come to a dance studio on campus to learn some choreography he had previously put together.
Several weeks later, the practices turned from duets into full group rehearsals. Belisario continued to invite fellow dancers, including third-year dance student G’bari Gilliam, and the group grew from the two friends to a total of 19 members.
“Most of us are just friends,” Gilliam said. “Some are dance majors, some are people from other teams like Samahang Modern and Nikkei Student Union and Association of Chinese Americans Hip Hop in the past years, and we just kind of knew and met through each other and made connections.”
Belisario said he didn’t name the group “Happy Feet” until days before its debut at Battle of the Pledges last winter, and cited his experiences with multiple styles of dance as an inspiration for the name. “Happy Feet” is also one of Belisario’s favorite movies, and he said the group’s emphasis on pure movement and footwork harkens directly back to tap dance, which is featured in the animated film.
“I always wanted to stress just the importance of just the culture and movement of dance,” Belisario said.
Instead of Happy Feet holding auditions for new members, Belisario and other current members invite fellow dancers who are interested to join. Happy Feet does not hold castings, which means all members perform at every event, and none are excluded based on skill level.
“(Happy Feet) is about the passion and love for dance and for each other,” Wamungu said. “Also it just is a commitment to really vibing to the music. Obviously we would like to be clean, and we focus on being presentable on stage, but it’s so much more about going out there and performing, and sharing that energy with the crowd and with each other.”
Happy Feet has performed six times, most recently at the Beat ‘SC Bonfire and Rally on Nov. 20. For now, the group chooses not to participate in dance competitions, and instead focuses solely on performances.
“We’ve been asked to do competitions and I’ve always said I want to keep the genuine love just to dance, because I feel like when the motivation is different, it kind of changes your outlook and your work ethic,” Belisario said. “I really just want everyone to shine and love dancing.”
Although the group’s current style is primarily rooted in hip-hop, members have been trained in Latin dance, ballroom, tap, jazz, contemporary, house and many other styles of dance. Though Belisario has choreographed all performances to date, the group looks to branch out into different styles after becoming more comfortable with its identity, Wamungu said.
Belisario said as a collaboration of dancers from varying backgrounds, the dancers never know what to expect when they come together to learn a new piece, and audience members never know which style they will be watching at any given performance.
“Happy Feet is about just showcasing the flexibility and the versatility of each dancer, because I feel like that’s something that I have to showcase, because everyone is just so good and so flexible,” Belisario said.
During practice, Belisario speaks a different language to his dancers in which English is replaced almost entirely with onomatopoeia.
“Boom, ca ca … over, push, hit-hit, grab and melt,” Belisario said.
Only few full sentences are spoken, and yet somehow, all the dancers seem to understand and learn a full piece in under two hours. It’s a medley of contemporary style fluidity swirled together with the rhythm of hip-hop and the footwork of tap.
As the group prepares for its next performance on Jan. 5 at the UCLA women’s basketball halftime show, they are reminded by Belisario to “feel it.” Many movements aren’t strictly choreographed, so this way Belisario said each dancer can put their own style and feeling into every performance.
“With everything that’s going on in the world right now, it’s very easy to get very cynical and get down on yourself, but for those few minutes, we just want to connect mentally, physically, emotionally with the people we’re performing for and share that experience together. That’s the biggest thing,” Wamungu said. “It’s all love.”