Every Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., Studio 2 in the Dedman Center for Life Sports opens its door for students who are passionate to dance. Here, SMU Hip Hop Club teaches students a dance with a pop song once a week.
“The purpose of the class is just to introduce students on campus to do some dance, just have fun, and grow their dance ability,” Dalton Gibson, president of Hip Hop Club, said.
Sixty people have practiced with this club before. Students can come and go at any time without signing up for membership. The class size varies from a few to 30 students. The classes are timed so some students can show up after their night classes and join the class midway. Gibson teaches students new choreography every time so that they will not miss out on anything if they skip a class.
Students join the club for many different reasons. Riley Scanlan, a freshman student who has never danced before, joined because he wants to take an artistic class.
“I’ve always wanted to take like a more artistic class, and dance is something I was very interested in. This is a very fun and loving program that just meets every once a week, and this is really cool ’cause if you miss a day, that doesn’t really matter ’cause there is a new dance every week,” Scanlan said.
Junior Megan Hauck decided to join the club because she missed dancing after graduating from high school.
“I used to dance in high school and I really missed it coming into college,” Hauck said. “And I think this club is a good place where you can get some variety and style of dance, and also just enjoy this sort of in a really fun and light-hearted way.”
Gibson teaches students in a slow tempo to let them get familiar with choreography first and then speeds up to catch up with the song’s actual tempo. After an hour learning, students are capable of dancing the song.
Students split up into small groups and dance together while recording video. Gibson uploads their practices on social media to let students see their improvement over time. The club offers chances for live performance as well.
“Red bull reached out to us and we are doing an online video competition with Red Bull, and we’ve also been able to perform on campus at an event such as Around the World at SMU, PigSkin Revue– and we also performed outside SMU at the Dallas Teen Pride Festival last year,” Gibson said.
To learn more about SMU Hip Hop Club, go to their Instagram page.
