For the 31st year of the Fieldston Dance Department’s Repertory Project, dance students have been working hard to learn choreography and the history of hip-hop. Choreographed by Victorius Remak, the dancers celebrate 50 years of hip-hop and explore the evolution of the style from the 1970s to now. While the Fieldston Dance Company is at the forefront of the project, participation was open to the entire community, allowing all students to engage with the material.
This is the first year that many of these students will share their dances in front of the community. Dance Company Member Coco Weinstein-Cambier (Form IV) has never been a part of the Repertory Project before but explained, “Having done it this year is the only thing I need for me to understand how fun the project is.” She went on to explain, “My favorite part of the Rep project is getting to know so many new people from different grades and getting to let go during the day from all my academic classes.” DCO students spend around six periods a week together learning choreography and working on technique, so they have a lot of time to bond.
Grace Negroni (Form VI) has participated in the Spring Dance Concert in previous years; however, this is her first time dancing in the Repertory Project. When asked about her favorite part of the experience she replied that she loves how Victorius “brings in so many different styles and honors fifty years of hip hop. [The choreography] brings in the 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2010s and 2020s and shows how hip hop has changed and evolved through the ages.” She went on to mention that the evolution is also “expressed through the music choices that Victorius has decided to put into the performance. It’s just really exciting to honor the legacy of hip hop through this performance.”
Weinstein-Cambier explained how Victorius’s choreography is “definitely different from Rob’s dance moves since Rob is typically more into contemporary or modern dance, while Victorius seems to be less expressive in his dance as he teaches ballet and hip hop at Fieldston.” As a result of these differing approaches, students are able to explore different styles of dance and expand their training.
Students had different experiences learning the choreography. The Fieldston Dance Company dancers have learned dances from Mr. O’Neil and guest choreographers; however, some of the other performers have little formal training. When asked about her previous dance experience Negroni explained that what she lacks in professional training and dance lessons she makes up for in energy. Demonstrating some of the steps, she explained, “One of my biggest challenges has been trying to understand how the moves should look in addition to how they should feel in my body. Some of them are very familiar things to me and some of them are very foreign.” While most dance teachers focus solely on the visual appeal of a dance, the Fieldston Dance department has always focused on how it feels to the dancer. This allows them to explore how the choreography makes them feel and incorporate their own emotion and character into each piece.
Featuring songs “Fight the Power” by Public Enemy, “Push It” by Salt-N-Pepa, “This is America” by Donald Glover and more, the dancers use Victorious Remak’s choreography to explore the history of hip hop. The Hip Hop Repertory Project will be performed in the auditorium on Friday, February 2nd, with a preview at Thursday’s assembly. Don’t miss their amazing performance as these dancers share the pieces they’ve been working on over the past few months!
IM SO EXCITED!!!!