Ohio State hip-hop dance group to host first dance competition

Dominique Johnson
Fri, 04 Nov 2016 02:02:51 +0000
Arts & Life, featured

Stylez Dance Group performed at the 2016 Homecoming Parade. Credit: Courtesy of Taylor Wicks

An Ohio State dance organization is set to host a competition for other college dance groups.

Stylez Dance Group is hosting its first dance competition on campus on Friday. The hip-hop dance student organization was established on campus in 2005, but this is the first event it has hosted on campus. The group typically travels to other school’s competitions, but finally decided to host one for OSU.

Erin Dempsey, president and a fourth-year in operations management, said the organization has executives with a lot of experience in competitive dance and just wanted to do more on campus.

“If you are not a college dance team and you’re just a student organization, you don’t have many places to perform, unless other people put it on,” she said. “We just wanted to take the initiative to do it for everyone else and Stylez.”

She also said she wanted to make a good environment for every kind of dance group, although the competition is hip-hop oriented.

“We wanted more places to perform that are actually good audiences,” Dempsey said. “Not just a random thing (performance) in the Union and people are like ‘Why are they dancing?’ Believe it or not, we get that a lot.”

There are a total of eight teams participating in the competition, including teams from Bowling Green State University, Wright State, and Miami University. Stylez also reached out to dance groups on campus, such as 3D Urban Dance Team, Dance Coalition, and the Club Dance Team. Stylez will not compete, but will perform an exhibition dance.

Teams will compete for first, second and third place prizes of $150, $100 and $50. The competition will be judged by three graduated Stylez members. Dempsey said the judges will look for aspects like cohesion, energy, and how well the team uses the space provided.

Lauren Dennis, vice president of Stylez and a fourth-year in dental hygiene, said the group wanted to hold a competition that is more casual that others is has taken part in.

“Some of the competitions we go to can get pretty expensive,” she said. “We can get graded for our costumes and we’re all kind of broke college students. Sometimes it’s just, like, put on a red flannel and leggings and that’s your costume. To us, that’s totally OK. It’s all about dancing”

The competition will be held on Friday in Hitchcock Hall from 7:30pm to 9:30pm. The cost of admission is $1.