A New Wave of beats
photo by Sarah Dreyer
Senior Nasir Roberts and juniors Josiah Wright and Traevis Saint Louis pose for their group photo.
It is a Friday during lunch, the day of a home game. The DJ is there, playing today’s Hip-Hop music. Spotted near the DJ Booth, seniors Nasir Roberts and Marc Penn, and juniors Josiah Wright and Traevis Saint Louis take advantage of lunch to show off their dance moves along with other dancers. They met through dancing yet, they became interested in dance at different times.
For the eighth grade talent show, Roberts and his friend were supposed to rap, but he bailed on Roberts at the last minute. Having nothing else planned and desperate, he resorted to dancing, watching Dubstep videos and learning how to move his feet with the beat. At the talent show, he placed second. Ever since the talent show, Roberts uses dancing in a therapeutic way.
“Whenever I’m sad, it’s something that I do,” Roberts said. “I want to get good at it so, one day, I can actually make it into something I can do for a living.”
Dancing since he was four years old, Wright started by imitating Michael Jackson’s moves, ranging from “Beat it” to “Thriller.” He stopped dancing for a short period of time during middle school, but then started it up again in high school.
“It’s a way of expressing yourself,” Wright said.
Saint Louis’ interest of dancing came about during his transition from elementary school to middle school when he was bored and started playing music, moving with the rhythm.
“You can be yourself,” Saint Louis said. “It just takes me to another world.”
Saint Louis dances whenever and wherever he can, and often gets comments from people about how he’s inspired them to be themselves.
Together, these freestyle dancers makeup the “New Wave” Dance Group, a new group that practices either after school or at each others’ houses.
Roberts and Wright performed at this years’ talent show, at the pep rally and, about a year ago, performed at a talent show “We are Brave,” a show that raises awareness about domestic violence.
The group has not performed at any events yet; however, Penn is in charge of recording and editing the videos of “New Wave” to help out with gaining popularity. He has an appreciation for dancing and is currently learning from the dance group. He started getting involved with the group when he was approached by “New Wave” to help out because of his background knowledge of TV Production.
When doing a music video, the group has to decide on a song that they are comfortable dancing to and easy for Penn to add to the video. One thing Penn keeps in mind during the making of the video and editing is the theme of the music video.
How Penn decides the theme of the music video all depends on the types of dance moves Roberts, Wright and Saint Louis perform. If the group were to have flamboyant moves, Penn would edit the video to fit that specific theme.
Currently, Penn is working on an interview video to introduce “New Wave” and how they came about. The video will also include more background about each member and how dancing has influenced them.
“It’s more than just a simple dance crew: its family,” Roberts said.
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