Urban Empire Dance Crew Displays Exquisite Moves
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Monday August 7, 2017 16:26
One of the night’s favourite performances was from hip-hop’s BanT. The Naomi singer, who has gained popularity amongst the youngsters with his brilliant collaboration with dancers from Urban Empire, blew the audience away.
He treated the audience with some of his songs like Why So Faded and the most loved, Naomi.
Evolution of Dance is a dance and theatrical event that comprises mostly hip-hop, animation, sbujwa, afro fusion and hip-hop contemporary.
The dance crew has taken it upon themselves to infuse the Setswana traditional dance moves into to the hip-hop culture making their choreography unique and more interesting.
One of the crew’s beautiful acts that got the amphitheatre roaring with excitement is the tribute to pop star, Michael Jackson where the young men and women displayed a beautiful act of the late singer’s song, Smooth Criminal.
The dancers’ energetic moves blew the audience away who were mostly students. In its Michael Jackson feature, the crew displayed a studio-based version of hip- hop known as the ‘new style’ and a hip-hop influenced style of jazz dance called jazz-funk, which seemed to have charmed the audience.
Maru-a-Pula Dance Crew, which is one of the school’s dance-taught by Urban Empire did not want to be left out and proved to other artists that they had what it took. The crew of young women and men earned itself respect amongst its fellow students with its mesmerising dance moves.
However, in his act, Ryan of the Future who was wearing a mask opted to go the old school way.
The energetic hip-hop dancer displayed some of the famous moves such as breaking, locking and popping, which were made popular by 1980s dance crews in the United States. Those dance moves gave hip -hop mainstream exposure.
Classically trained dancers developed these studio styles in order to choreograph from the hip-hop dances that were performed on the street. Because of this development, hip-hop dance is practised in both dance studios and outdoor spaces.
The female dance crew from Westwood also displayed a beautiful performance. Those young women proved to be on the right track and are following good steps as they are part of the group taught by Urban Empire. Mel and Wedu’s collaboration was also intriguing.
The duo who displayed different dance styles excellently fused their different dance moves making one big beautiful play that earned nods from hip hop lovers. Mel’s dance was mainly breakdancing, which many call ‘robot’ while Wedu decided to go for breaking and popping.