Arianna Rodriguez
Staff Writer
Members of the University of La Verne dance team held a dance showcase titled, “World of Dance.”
The performance consisted of various dance numbers put on by the team and several different students Wednesday in the Morgan Auditorium.
The seats in the auditorium filled completely as students gathered in for the performance, with only about 10 seats left empty by the time of opening statements.
The Campus Activites Board and the Associated Students of La Verne sponsored the event.
CAB members presented the dance team as it came to a start, while keeping the audience entertained all throughout with jokes and prizes thrown out to the crowd.
Members of the dance team opened the show with an upbeat group performance to the song “Dem Beats” by Todrick Hall while showing off their dancing talent.
“The initial purpose of this show was to make our campus community more aware of our existence, since many don’t known that La Verne has a dance team,” Jackie Sanchez, junior dance captain, said.
A lyrical solo titled “Waiting Game” performed by freshman Olivia Tawekjian, showed emotion and flexibility through her performance.
“My solo was just for me personally,” Tawekjian said. “I love doing lyrical so I had a lot of fun putting it onto this amazing song, and just dancing for myself. I just wanted everyone to feel happy in their hearts and souls because dance definitely has the power to do that.”
The audience appeared to get hyped up when a group of six dancers performed a hip-hop routine to the famously known song, ‘Sicko Mode” by Travis Scott.
The dancers were “pop and locking” to the song as the audience danced along in their seats.
“I feel great, I believe it was an amazing turnout and it gave the other team member the opportunity to try genres of dance that we may not typically have the opportunity to learn and perform,” Tawekjian said.
One performance stood out when dance member Angela Garcia performed a solo of a Mexican Folklorico dance that she said represented her Hispanic roots.
While clad in a vibrant, colorful skirt that she swung back and forth during the performance, it seemed as though the audience could not get enough of her as they cheered and yelled with full energy.
“The Folklorico dance had to be my favorite because it represented the Hispanic culture that I feel it doesn’t get represented much in this community, so it was amazing to see such a beautiful performance,” audience member Janet Garcia said.
The dance team performed other memorable performances and the energy was at an all-time high throughout the night.
“I feel really happy about it. The other girls and I are really proud of the event and are really glad that people enjoyed it and it definitely inspires us to do more events like this in the future,” sophomore dance member Alex Torres said.
The show closed with a hip-hop performance performed by the entire dance team.
The team wore matching black tops and camouflage pants. At the end of the performance they passed their bows to the audience as a thank you.
“We are very appreciative of the large audience and their enthusiasm because we were able to build off of their energy and it made the experience even more cherishing,” Tawekjian said.
Arianna Rodriguez can be reached at arianna.rodriguez@laverne.edu.
