It’s a wonder there is no dearth of dance groups at U of T. A case in point, the University of Toronto Festival of Dance is the largest university dance festival in Canada, but organizers have not helped groups overcome the hurdle they all face: finding appropriate rehearsal space. Take hip hop: there are at least three dedicated groups on campus developing their own flavour, yet when The Varsity attempted to plan a battle between just two of these groups, it became a logistics nightmare.
“We basically go wherever there’s an opening. If there’s an open space anywhere with any sort of reflective surface, we’ll use it,” says Joelle dela Paz, director of campus hip hoppers FO’REAL. The group’s 20-strong performance crew—a fraction of the members who use the group recreationally—practice on average four hours a week. If their dance-where-available, don’t-ask policy seems slightly outside the law, Joelle notes a web of restrictions that force groups into that position. “If you try to book it, everything’s usually booked, or they have ridiculous policies about booking it three days before, and you can only book for an hour.”
The group has found a room (which this writer will keep secret), though they risk the ire of a specific member of the caretaking staff who takes issue with the noise. The negativity hasn’t dampened their verve.
“Like many of us here, I haven’t had any actual professional training. It was just something I picked up. Through opportunities like this—university teams and school teams—that’s where I discovered how much I love dancing,” explains Sean de Francia, a first-year student and member of the performance crew. “I find it’s really expressive. It’s using your body to create art, it’s just a lot more athletic than other arts. It’s a lot easier to put yourself into what you’re doing.”
FO’REAL member Tommy Lang adds that it’s appropriate the group finds dance a solace from the stresses of coursework. “This type of dance started out with people wanting to get away from a really bad life. It started out by trying to enjoy life in some other form. That’s what we’re doing now—we’re trying to get away from school.”
It’s a sentiment that may strike some as counterintuitive given that hip hop culture is often given a bad rap. But Sean says the perspective of a dancer is just the opposite. “When we’re dancing is when we’re most vulnerable, it’s when we’re letting everything out. Everything that’s threatening us—we just throw it in.”
