Stony Brook’s Best Dance Crew was a failed attempt at imitating the popular MTV television show. The function, held at the Stony Brook Union auditorium on Friday March 12, ended up feeling more like a low budget high school production than an intense battle of experienced and entertaining dance crews.
There were four competing Stony Brook dance crews: an all female belly dance team, a hip-hop dance crew that went by the name Puso Dance Crew, a south asian dance crew named Thillana, and a Hindi dance team named KHATRA.
True to America’s Best Dance Crew, there were three rounds, each with a specific theme. The first round was originality, the second was West Side Story themed, and the third and final round was an improvised choreography to a given song.
The program was supposed to begin at 8 p.m. However, people weren’t allowed into the auditorium until 8:30, and the show didn’t begin until 9 p.m. As a result, the entire program was behind schedule.
After the delay, the hosts made their way onto the stage. Their microphones were unclear and little of what was said could be comprehended. This issue carried on to the videos which were also incomprehensible. It is also worth noting that the lighting crew was inconsistent, at best, often changing colors, and turning the auditorium lights on and off to the vocal complaints of the audience.
The audience was talkative and the room was crowded. When crews weren’t dancing, the audience was not paying attention to the filler segments but were immersed in their own conversation.
The actual dancing was entertaining, for the most part, when overlooking the sound system’s poor quality. Dance routines only lasted about one minute, and probably should have taken up more of the program. When it came down to eliminations for the first and second rounds, the judges made debatable decisions.
The intermission began with two dance numbers, which were entertaining, and some poetry. The poetry was written by Daniel Rock, who read two poems, one related to Haiti and the other one “for the ladies.” The first poem was well done, while the other received more than a few chuckles.
After the eccentric poetry, the “mysterious contest line” in the program turned out to be a poorly run and time consuming hula-hoop competition, with contestants who often failed immediately.
Finally, at around 10:30 (when the winner was supposed to be announced), the third and final round commenced. The final two crews (the belly dance crew and the Puso Dance Crew) had to dance to the same song selected by the judges. By the end of the third round, the crowd pleasing Puso Dance Crew won the title of Stony Brook’s Best Dance Crew.
Of the dance crews, the Puso Dance Crew was definitely a crowd favorite. Their choreography was often together and their tricks had the crowd screaming for more.
The program itself had about 30 minutes of dancing and two and a half hours of everything else. In the end, the event could’ve been far more entertaining if there was more dancing and less filler.
