Student dance groups Refresh, Fusion and Boomshaka are holding their annual Refusionshaka dance showcase on Friday and Saturday Nov. 8 and 9.
“What I love most about Refusionshaka is that it brings three of the dance groups together,” McCormick sophomore Lili Wang, a member of both Fusion and Refresh, said. “I think we don’t get enough time to interact as a dance community enough just cause we’re always doing our own thing. Refusionshaka lets us work together and do middle pieces together, and we interact with everybody to have that combined dance culture.”
To Wang, Refresh and Fusion are fairly similar with a key distinction: “Fusion is the darker cousin of Refresh. If Fusion was a video game character, we’d be Bowser, and Refresh is more of a Mario.”
Generally, the dance styles for the show evolve every year based on who choreographs each piece. Weinberg senior Allegra Kawles, who is an executive board member on Boomshaka, said that the dance groups have incorporated more electronic music, and Refresh president Weinberg senior Brooklyn Copeland has noticed “a rise in afro-beats, which is cool, this year.”
Each dance group has their own unique set of styles and skills that enhance the overall Refusionshaka experience.
“It’s so many people from every part of Northwestern that are on that stage,” Copeland said. “It’s a really cool way to share a passion and talent.”
The biggest challenge in leadership for Kawles this year was creating pieces that would be fun for audiences to watch while keeping the dances “more modern and contemporary and attainable than just concert dance.”
Kawles said the ultimate goal of Refusionshaka is for everyone in the auditorium to have a good time and to also understand the thought that was put into every single part of it.
“Everyone loves performing here,” SESP senior Emily Coffee, an executive board member of Boomshaka, said. “People love dance and love drumming. Seeing that joy and feeling it for themselves, it’s really, really cool.”
This article was edited on Nov. 13 to correct details regarding a student's school.