After months of preparation leading to one moment, Seattle Pacific University’s dance group brought their all.
On Saturday, April 20, Ante Up held its annual event “SPU You Think You Can Dance,” a yearly celebration of the art of dancing. Held in Royal Brougham Pavilion, students and Seattle community members were treated to performances that members of the club had been working hard on perfecting for some time. Thankfully, however, all of their efforts paid off.
“SPU You Think You Can Dance” holds an important place in SPU’s student life. According to third-year exercise science student and member of Ante Up Ezra Michel, the event is all about bringing art and inclusion to campus.
“The really great thing about the event is that you don’t only get an expression of dancing, but an expression of different cultures as well,” Michel said. “Dancing is a form of art, but it’s also a form of love. This event is about inclusion, the inclusion of different cultures and different words.”
The theme of the evening was “Into the Danceverse” a title that reflected the all-inclusive nature of the performances. Throughout the night, the performances not only presented different styles of dancing but also different cultures as well. This year’s “SPU You Think You Can Dance” was all about presenting dancing not only as an art but as an expression of self
Ante Up presented performances by just about every major dancing style imaginable, from hip-hop to jazz to R&B and even K-pop. At the same time, members of multiple groups from across campus including PICCA and FASA were able to showcase their culture through their performances.
Bringing such a big and highly orchestrated event to campus comes with a lot of practice and precision that takes time to master. As Melina Rutland, a third-year asian studies student and leading performer explained, so much of the event involved working out any possible problem areas.
“The rehearsal process mostly involves us coming together and just seeing where we’re at,” Rutland said. “Seeing what needs refining and finding out what we need to work on to make everything work. We also try and lift each other up at the same time to make sure we’re all doing well. We try and make sure we feel like everything is going to work well.”
With so much of 2024’s event depending on the diversity of the dancing and cultures, a big part of the planning process was focused on those themes. As performer and fourth-year nursing student Ylliam Umipig explained, his group wanted to choose a performance that would highlight their heritage.
“Our group is PICCA, and we wanted to do something relating to the culture,” Umipig said. “We thought it would be great to perform something that would really be exciting and would also showcase the culture of the Pacific Islands. So those were really the factors that helped us make our decisions.”
Though performing a dance that has so much cultural significance can be fun and rewarding, it is not without some challenges. As performer and fourth-year biology student Jewel Garcia explained, paying proper tribute to their heritage through their skill was very important.
“The hardest part has been doing the dance in a way that honors the Samoan culture,” Garcia explained. “We wanted to make sure we did the Sasa in both a fun way but also in a way that was respectful, so we worked really hard on that.”
Ante Up’s “SPU You Think You Can Dance” once again brought dancers from all across SPU together to show off their skills and hard work through an exciting and exhilarating evening. In its conclusion, it hopefully not only brought more culture to campus but as Michel expressed, some kindness.
“Dancing is a form of art and an expression of culture, but it’s also an expression of love as well,” Michel said. “Dancing is a language that no matter where you’re from or who you are you can understand, so that’s what the event is all about and we hope everyone will get to feel that.”
