The wooden floor bumps to a catchy beat as a diverse group of SMU students laugh, meet new friends, and learn something new on a Thursday evening in the Dedman Recreation Center. This scene may look like any another sporting activity held at Dedman, but the positive vibe these students create is not from the help of any sports equipment.
“Dancing is such an innate part of human nature,” said SMU Hip Hop Dance Club’s President Udoka Omenukor.
Frustrated with SMU’s lack of dance interest outside of Meadows, Udoka decided to create the Hip Hop Dance Club in 2007.
After meeting HHDC’s current artistic director, Chris White, the club gained momentum. Omenukor and White soon created a club giving SMU students with all levels of dancing abilities and experience the opportunity to dance and meet new people, according to White.
Trained ballet dancer and sophomore, Audrey Archer, was hesitant to take her first class from the HHDC, but did so after a friend convinced her to.
“I don’t regret it at all,” Archer said.
Archer also said that the class has one extra benefit: “Everybody here…I consider a friend. It’s lots of fun.”
White agrees. “People are laughing and just having a good time.”
White is currently choreographing a new dance to Mike Posner’s “You don’t have to leave.” He said that “being able to express yourself and not worry about what others will think” is the most rewarding part of HHDC.
“Everybody should join…it does not matter your dance level,” said HHDC Vice President, Pat Traver (Disclosure: Traver is a copy editor for The Daily Campus). Traver has been hip-hop dancing since she was 15-years-old. She stressed that anyone who is even slightly interested should not be intimidated to join. The HHDC dances are taught at an easy pace. Each class has dancers who have never touched a dance floor sharing the floor with those who have danced their whole lives.
“Before you do your homework or before you go out, you’ll never regret coming to class because there is no reason not to come,” Traver said. “There’s not a better way to waste a Thursday evening.”
The HHDC meets on Thursdays from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. in Studio 3 in the Dedman Recreational Center. For more information, visit www.hiphopdc.blogspot.com.