Members of the NSU Modern dance team practice in Parking Lots 4 and 7 on Tuesday and Thursday nights. The team has grown since its founding nearly 20 years ago, Among its most recent achievements includes a second-place win at the UC San Diego Fusion Hip-Hop Competition last March. The team will also compete in the ENKORE hip-hop showcase Oct. 16 at the Long Beach Terrace Theater.
In the damp evening air, the orange-tinted glow of Parking Lot 7 is less of a concrete parking structure than it is a dance studio.
Nestled in a corner of handicapped spaces littered with backpacks, sweatshirts and an extensive collection of water bottles, the NSU Modern dance team has a temporary home. Equipped with a boom box and an outlet, it has all that it needs.
“Since my first year, we’ve always been in a parking lot ““ it’s not really a question about where we’d practice,” said Elisa Lo, an NSU Modern coordinator and fourth-year world arts and cultures and physiological science student.
The roughly 40-member dance team, which is a branch of the Nikkei Student Union, uses the sheltered structures of Parking Lots 4 and 7 as its practice refuge. It is also where returning dancers are currently preparing their routine for the ENKORE hip-hop showcase, an invitation-only competition at Long Beach Terrace Theater on Oct. 16.
While the team does compete in hip-hop, NSU Modern fuses a medley of dance genres not easily defined by a single style. Moving with a fluid accuracy to a mix of jazz and funk beats, the group’s practice is reflective of its members’ varied backgrounds.
Blending a mélange of dance experience, the team boasts talent ranging from lyrical and ballet to jazz and tap backgrounds, as well as hip-hop.
“We have a lot of versatile dancers in our crew ““ we have a lot of contemporary dancers. Even myself, I’m a more modern, contemporary, hip-hop fusion dancer. Our sets are very reflective of how talented our dancers are,” said Karen Chuang, an NSU Modern coordinator and third-year business economics and world arts and cultures student. “We don’t just have the stereotypical b-boys or poppers or lockers.”
Within the depths of the parking lot, the echoes of eight-counts can be heard reverberating as the team practices every Tuesday and Thursday night, when its members repeat choreographed pieces ““ the short routines that make up a final performance set comprised of six to seven pieces. Working with spot-on precision and unison in movement, the team is interrupted only by the occasional car passing through its makeshift studio.
According to Chuang, the dance team has significantly progressed since its inception nearly 20 years ago. Among the team’s most recent accomplishments was a second-place win at the UC San Diego Fusion Hip-Hop Competition last March, making NSU Modern the first UCLA dance team to place in a major hip-hop competition.
Merrick Wadsworth, an NSU Modern director and fourth-year political science student, counts the surprise second-place Fusion award as among his most memorable moments with the team.
“We didn’t think we were going to win, so we didn’t even go on stage. When they called our name we literally rushed from all over because we were sitting all over the stands. … People were crying and then all of the teams started chanting our name because we’d been coming up from the bottom of the bottom and now we’re actually finding some success and the other teams are supporting us,” Wadsworth said.
While many group members are formally trained in dance, others on the team, like Merrick, only began their dancing careers in college.
“A couple of girls that lived on my floor first year were going to try out (for NSU Modern) and they pretty much dragged me with them. I made the team miraculously and I’ve loved it ever since,” Merrick said. “It’s just fun to do something with your energy because we’re all young.”
With dancers hailing from majors ranging from north campus humanities to south campus sciences and medical school students, the team attributes much of its success to its inclusive family spirit.
“I think one of the special things about NSU and why I stuck with NSU after my first year (is that) we accept our members for whatever flaws and attributes they have, and honestly there’s not a lot of drama with our team,” said Amanda Sherman, an NSU Modern adviser and former coordinator and fourth-year world arts and cultures, psychology and urban planning student.
“We all collaborate, we all try to work together for this common goal ““ that seven minutes on stage.”