Dance troupes to strut their stuff at Manifest

Back by popular demand, student dance groups Adrenaline and Columbia Recognized Unique Individuals will take the stage May 27 for another round of performances at Manifest.

With a mix of hip-hop and Latin music, these crowd-pleasing troupes, consisting of mostly non-dance majors will dance their way through Manifest on both the Garden Stage and the Main Stage.

But according to the students involved, performing at Manifest isn’t just about dancing, it’s about taking pride in the school andcreating community.

“We’re in art school and so this is our chance to really take something that we love and put it out there and sort of display it. It’s important for the school just for us to participate and promote it,” said Nicolas Gomez, president of Latino Alliance and an Adrenaline member.

“It’s a good way of networking and collaborating,” said Maurice Coleman, a television major at Columbia and a CRUI member.

With seven members, CRUI is a recognized student organization at Columbia that focuses on “the power of music and respect and dignity for all people,” according to the group’s mission statement.

CRUI, unlike Adrenaline, has two workshops during the year that students can attend. And Manifest, the big performance of the year for CRUI, is more a matter of perfect timing coming just after finals.
“All these individual and unique people thought it would be fun,” Coleman explained.

And while Adrenaline has twice the number of performers as CRUI—Adrenaline has 15—their Manifest appearance was in jeopardy earlier this year.

Initially created as a group project by members of Latino Alliance and FUSION, Adrenaline has been a staple of Manifest since its inception. But with the dissolution of FUSION this year, a performance by Adrenaline seemed unlikely.

Nicolas Gomez, president of Latino Alliance and a member of Adrenaline, said that enough students were supportive of the idea to make it worthwhile.

“It was something that everyone was asking about, everybody was really interested in doing …” Gomez said. “We weren’t sure if we were gonna do it, but because of the response of people, we knew that we had to.”
“We want to perform, this is what we’re all about,” Coleman said.

Adrenaline performs at 12:15 p.m. and again at 2:30 p.m. CRUI follows at 12:30 p.m. and 3:20 p.m. on the Main Stage at the corner of Harrison Street and Michigan Avenue. Both groups will also perform on the Garden Stage at the corner of 11th Street and Wabash Avenue with Adrenaline at 1:15 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. and CRUI at 2 p.m. and 6:15 p.m.

In addition to Adrenaline and CRUI, several other groups will perform throughout Thursday’s festival. The troupe Afrofolk presents a combination of martial arts, Brazilian music and break dance on the Garden Stage at the corner of 11th Street and Wabash Avenue. A group of high school students, with the direction of graduate students from the dance movement therapy program, will perform from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. in Hokin Hall in the Wabash Campus Building, 623 S. Wabash Ave. Faculty, guest artists and seniors will perform as part of PIVOT at the Dance Center 1306 S. Michigan Ave. The dances will feature eight Columbia seniors as well as various Dance Center faculty members.