During this past Stand Up Rally, the Caribbean dance group stirred up a dance honoring countries in the Caribbean with hints of African American culture. It’s important to have fun; that is exactly what they did together. The dancers of the group consisted of a mix of juniors and sophomores, Aniyah Marc, Naimah Thomas, Ashlee Galloway, Jasmine Kungu, Inaya AbdurRaheem, and Juliane Colon.
One of the Junior dancers Aniyah Marc carries the title of the organizer. While only being a junior, every year of her BHS career, she has danced in every stand-up rally. She still plans on continuing dancing as a senior. She encourages everyone with a Caribbean background to join in their group dance to bring a wider representation of each country.
Giving a taste of Caribbean culture brings awareness to different types of cultural backgrounds that BHS students are possibly a part of “The main purpose of us doing this dance for the school, is giving the school a taste of black culture, in this case, Caribbean countries” was said by organizer Aniyah Marc.
When in consideration of how the dance moves tie into the Caribbean theme, Aniyah stated, “We used our hips a lot with the movement, which is a very common move aligned in Caribbean cultural dances.”
The musicians play a big part in the dance because they come from backgrounds that are of African, American, and Caribbean. The musicians used were Beyonce, Drake, Burna Boy, and DJ Flex. Using a collaboration of songs, ‘One Dance’, ‘Put Your Back in It’ and a mashup of Burna Boy and Beyonce.
With the time and effort put into this masterpiece, it can be easily known that this dance meant more to the dancers than just a dance. Every masterpiece comes with challenges along the way. A common question that was asked amongst all members was “What was the biggest challenge about the dance?” When Sophomore Inaya Abdur Raheem was asked, she stated, “The biggest challenge is the learning of the dances and keeping up with the timing.”
A common fear of performing in front of a large crowd of people comes from stage fright. These dancers performed in front of a mixture of friends, teachers, and strangers. Aniyah shared that she had a common concern relating to performing in front of a large crowd by stating, “One of the biggest challenges is not messing up in front of the whole school because we know hundreds of eyes are watching us.”
Perfecting dances are full of challenges but that’s not the only aspect about them. Having fun is a big part of creativity and many dancers shared moments full of enjoyment in addition to being involved in the dance.
Naimah Thomas expresses her enjoyment of the experience she enjoyed by being included in this dance by stating “I love how the dances are very creative and show many different moves”
With a great performance that was enjoyed by these dancers, organizer Anyiah Marc gives us the great news that “We are planning on doing another dance next year, like how we have been doing for the past three years.”
