While many dance studios around Eugene offer hip-hop and jazz classes for energetic dancers, only one studio gives dancers the opportunity to spread their energy outside the country. ZAPP, a 15-year-old performing company and branch of On Your Toes School of Dance, emphasizes street and urban styles and has an accomplished touring history.
With 27 members between the ages of 16 and 24, ZAPP is the creative invention of On Your Toes School owner Cindy Zreliak, who started the company to give dancers more chances to share their art.
“There wasn’t a big outlet for jazz and hip-hop dancers in Eugene,” she said. “ZAPP grew out of On Your Toes. We wanted to perform more than at recitals and competitions.”
ZAPP focuses on jazz and hip-hop styles of dance, but some of its moves draw from African and Caribbean styles, among others.
Music choices include songs from bands such as Outkast and the Dilated Peoples, and costuming generally features athletic and street styles. The company holds auditions every year in the late summer for its three categories of dancers: Seniors, Elites and Graduates.
While all three groups perform regularly
together, the more advanced Elites and
Graduates have the busiest performing
schedule. During the school year, dancers rehearse about six hours per week and perform locally; when summer starts, practice time increases to around 30 hours per week to prepare for a season of touring.
Tours have taken ZAPP members to Hawaii, England and around the United States, and next summer, they hope to travel even farther — to Italy or the Czech Republic. Zreliak said ZAPP’s two trips to Hawaii the past two summers required discipline in order to keep the dancers out of vacation mode.
“To keep them focused, we got them up at 6 a.m. every day and hiked up Diamond Head crater and back,” she said.
Other tour experiences include performing with a live ska band in England, a late-night swing show in New York City and a waterfront performance in Tennessee in front of thousands, which Graduate ZAPP dancer Eileen Beringer cites as one of her favorite memories.
“That was the most people I have ever performed in front of,” Beringer said. “That’s when I knew that I’m in this company that is just amazing.”
Beringer, an 11-year veteran of ZAPP and instructor at On Your Toes School of Dance, said the passion of company members has grown over the years, as well as the team’s unity and talent.
“It used to be just an after-school activity, and now you’re here pouring out your soul and being with these people and trying to get better, and it’s happening,” she said. “Every year the movement gets more energetic. You just have a blast with these people in the audience watching you, and you’re not uncomfortable because you have people next to you on stage working just as hard as you are.”
The idea of a unified company is what ZAPP Assistant Director Cheryl Lemmer describes as its central philosophy. While ZAPP has participated in competitions in the past, Lemmer said it has abandoned competing in order to become stronger as a group.
“We believe in the company and being good people and good dancers, and competing doesn’t always encourage that,” she said. “You don’t dance well because you want a trophy; you dance well because you love it.”
Beringer added that competition within the company itself is absent, which has created a welcoming environment for dancers.
“The reason people keep coming back is the positive feedback and way of teaching from Cindy and Cheryl,” she said. “It’s a family atmosphere. We’re not trying to get better than the person next to us, we’re all looking to learn and get better as one, as opposed to, ‘let’s fight.’”
Both Zreliak and Lemmer said that their goal for ZAPP is to have it recognized as a professional touring company. Currently, dancers are unpaid and rely on fund-raising and their own money to pay for tours. Lemmer said the first step to achieve this goal is to obtain more funding from donations and grants.
At the moment, ZAPP is rehearsing for their upcoming show, S.U.R.G.E. (Strictly Urban Rhythms Generate Excitement), which will take place at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts on Oct. 16 at 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 17 at 2:30 p.m. Lemmer said the show will feature high energy, urban dancing to hip-hop and rap tunes.

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