IndepenDANCE starts something

October 7th, 2011 | By geo gomez gomezgeo@grinnell.edu | Section: Arts

Grinnell’s hip-hop scene is about to make itself known. For the students in IndepenDANCE, hip-hop dance is not a hobby, but a way of life.

When they arrived on campus, Christian Snow ’13 and Seantasia Lee ’13 scouted the Grinnell scene to see if there was a hip-hop presence.

“I had been doing some feeling out of the student body population,” Snow said. “There was never any open call, it was me talking to who I thought would be good for the group.”

It would seem that Snow’s search for this kind of dance outlet struck a chord with the student body.

“Once word got out,” Snow said, “instead of me going to people, people came to me talking about it.”

Students from all areas of the spectrum are showing interest in the group, according to Snow.

“I saw that hip-hop had been a presence in Grinnell the whole time,” Snow said. “You wouldn’t believe some of the people who showed interest.”

Now that Grinnell hip-hop has burst out of its cage, there is no taming the beast. It draws its members from wherever there is the passion to dance.

“We have people joining every week!” Lee said. “Every week a new member.”

For IndepenDANCE, passion has been an omnipresent vibe. Hip-hop dancing in Chicago, Lee and Snow’s hometown, was a way of life.

“Dance is an everyday sort of thing,” Snow said.

“You don’t grow up in Chicago not dancing,” Lee said. “I don’t care whether it’s bachata or hip-hop, every body dances.”

Though both Lee and Snow draw their inspiration from dance in their hometown, at Grinnell they hope to summon any will to dance into a reality.

“You don’t need a hip-hop background,” Snow said, “you don’t need years of dance experience, you don’t need anything besides a passion and an interest for it.”

“As long as you can catch the rhythm,” Lee said.

IndepenDANCE is an under-the-radar presence ready to rock Grinnell. The captains are determined, the team is talented and the passion is unmatched. With an upcoming performance in November, IndepenDANCE may just usher in a hip-hop renaissance on campus.