That following September, at Festifall, funKtion performed to great success. With Amit and Babbs working the contacts, funKtion went on to perform at A Taste of Culture, Dance Marathon, Pioneer High School and Encompass (with Impact Dance Troupe). Meanwhile, GrooveCulture members popped up dancing all over the place, for example the IASA and KSA shows to just mention a few.I have to mention a great party that was thrown in October by Julia. Easily one of the best parties I've been to in college, it was held in her house's attic so that was mad dope, even though people slipped down the stairs and puked all over the side of her balcony.
At Huaren 2000, two more dance groups were formed after auditions, Freaknutz (Angie/ Leslie) and Booyah Tribe (Helen/ Sher Wing). While they performed as separate acts, they were both written up as part of a larger GrooveCulture act. As the circle of dancers expanded, the goal to perform with everyone in one big act was suddenly within reach.
Using Huaren as a sponsor, GrooveCulture was submitted to GenAPA for their consideration as a hip hop act. After an initial period of rejection, GrooveCulture was finally accepted to perform. Once again, the time period between Huaren and GenAPA was only three weeks so time was a scarce commodity. A semi-GrooveCulture spring break in Miami gave everyone a chance to rest before the nightly practices began.
GrooveCulture was finally one complete act, featuring like twenty four dancers. We even got Jay (who had to move on and graduate and go to work) back for half a week so he could practice and be in part of the act. Needless to say, that GrooveCulture performance was crazy (even featuring a medley where moves from Groove Mode Squad, Culture Shock, Freaknutz and Booyah Tribe were strung together). The GenAPA performance showed how far dancing had come and how fun it was for everyone involved. All those practices at East Hall and Angell Hall had amounted to so much. Pizza House also probably made a ton of money off of our late night visits.
GrooveCulture went on their first road trip to Chicago in late March at Northwestern for that year's ITASA. The music dropped out halfway through the performance but a live Brian Babb led rendition of Usher's "Too Slow" carried the day.
Denouement
That was the end of the line for GrooveCulture as a dancing entity. While the traditions and friendships of GrooveCulture have carried on, it has now evolved into a different dance group. FunKtion has exploded on campus in only it's second year (continuing to get gigs everywhere, from Lunar Ball to 58 Greene concerts to Encompass once again, where it ended up on the cover page of the Michigan Daily). However, since funKtion was only guys, another group was formed by the remaining GC dancers. This group, Dance2XS is affiliated with University of Illinois: Urbana-Champagne's Dance2XS. The vision for Dance2XS is to spread dancing to campuses all over the nation.
Neither funKtion nor Dance2XS performed at Huaren or GenAPA 2001, moving a bit away from the original conception of GrooveCulture. However, both groups are enjoying tremendous support and success, even as far as getting invited to come out to New York to perform at Columbia's ECASU Conference. The caliber of the dancing has gone through the roof and it's amazing to see dance take off like it has this year. I'm not even on campus and I hear great things about them.
So in a concise format, that's the story of Groove Culture, more or less. . I hope to be able to add Quicktime videos of some of the dances someday but since i'm technologically challenged I may need some divine guidance.
