Brad Quiseng waits outside the dance studio on the second floor of the Student Recreation Center, greeting his fellow team members with a smile as they arrive for practice on the quiet, rainy night in Eugene. As the rest of the team begins to warm up, he goes over the practice itinerary one last time. While most students are busy studying for finals, Quiseng and the rest of the University of Oregon Hip-Hop Dance Club are preparing for their most important competition of the year: the Unified Collegiate Breaking League’s (UCBL) 2017 National Championship.
The team is headed to San Francisco for the 12-team tournament that begins with a round-robin group stage. After each team has competed against each other in a series of dance-offs, a panel of judges picks a team to advance to the next round.
The University of Oregon Hip-Hop Dance Club pose during practice. (Aaron Nelson/Emerald)
“It’s a showcase of how a B-boy in college can balance school and breaking,” said club Vice President Lance Chau. “Like your passion versus your academics and I think that’s really cool. It shows that you can still do what you love while going to school.”
The team didn’t place when it participated in the competition for the first time last year, but with last year’s experience and a team full of senior members, both Quiseng and Chau feel good about the team’s chances at advancing past group stage this year.
There were only five members when the team was unofficially founded over eight years ago. Since then the team has become an official university club and has seen its membership more than triple in size. Part of that is thanks to the club’s willingness to teach other students.
Read about fellow UO dance club the Duck Street Dancers here.
“We have an open door policy,” Chau said. “Anyone that walks in and wants to learn, we will teach them. Regardless of gender or age… You don’t even have to have dance experience. You can come in not knowing anything and then within two months you’ll know so much. We try to break it down so anyone can learn.”
While the club’s membership has grown recently, they often struggle to attract the right type of dancer. It’s difficult to see the differences between hip-hop and other forms of dancing.
Members of the University of Oregon Hip-Hop Dance Club watch as one member practices his individual routine. (Aaron Nelson/Emerald)
“When people think about hip-hop dance they think about the Jabbawockeez or the people they’ve seen on ‘America’s Best Dance Crew,’ which is more like choreography. That’s not actual hip-hop,” Quesing said. “Break dancing is people spinning on their heads, the footwork on the floor, doing the rocking standing up or the top-rocks and power moves like the crazy flares and freezes. That’s really the true hip-hop dance.”
The Hip-Hop Dance Club provides a unique experience for its members that Chau said is not often common in other sports due to the close community at dance competitions.
“Usually you do your sport but then you go home after. You you don’t know the people you just competed against,” Chau said. “But with dancing you compete with these people and oftentimes you’ll go and get a drink later, go get food after and you get to know them, know where they’re from. It’s a very open community.”
