VIVAZ brought the spirit of the Caribbean to Arellano Theater Friday night with their third annual “Vivaz to Di World” dance showcase.
VIVAZ seeks to bring the culture of the Caribbean and Africa to Hopkins through poetry and dance. Last weekend’s showcase featured guest performances by SLAM and Temps D’Afrique.
Juniors Courtney Reynolds and Makesi Paul hosted the event, and brought energy, humor and liveliness to the stage.
They engaged the audience through comic exchanges and offered contextual background to each of the performance groups.
The audience was uproarious in response to their cracks — at one point, they even pulled up a few audience members to show off their own dance moves.
After watching Reynolds’ and Paul’s hilarious banter, it became clear that the night was not just about dance.
Rather, it became about bringing the campus’s Caribbean community together for a celebration of culture.
VIVAZ’s first performance of the night was by far its most organized and rehearsed.
The choreography was on point, and all of the girls were in sync with each other and with the music.
There were playful wolf whistles and cat calls thrown at the stage because of the personal connections that the performers had with much of the audience.
And indeed, there was enough hip action to call for such responses.
Their choice of music, a mix of mainstream dance songs (like Shakira’s “Rabiosa”) and lesser known dance beats, complimented the fun atmosphere.
SLAM, Hopkins’s only hip-hop group, gave a technically adept and sensual performance.
Though it was enjoyable, the dance style and choice of song (Taeyang’s “I Need a Girl”) didn’t fit the night’s Caribbean theme.
Temps D’Afrique offered an entertaining performance, with colorful costumes and bold dance moves got the audience rocking along.
Afterwards, the dancers joined the audience to cheer on their friends in VIVAZ.
Though it was called a dance show, the event seemed to be more like a cultural showcase and gathering of a community at Hopkins that is relatively anonymous on campus.
The audience vocally expressed their pride in their Caribbean heritage, and their performances celebrated that energy.
Caribbean dishes shared after the show allowed everyone to further experience Caribbean heritage.
Unfortunately, the show itself was sparsely attended.
Most of the audience consisted of friends of performers, and they offered encouraging energy for performers to feed off of.
Even though there were not that many people in the crowd, their excitement made enough noise to fill the entire theater.
Though Arellano itself is drab, the choice of venue served to highlight the vibrancy of the performances of the night.
