Issue Date: 11/16/09
Taking talent to the extreme
By Yvonne Lanot
|
Extreme Creative Talent is a club made up of student choreographers who get together and do freestyle dancing.
Marc Arjona, the President and founder of the club, along with the vice president and co-founder, Dominic Cruz, created this club in the summer of 2009.
"Basically [we were] just chillin' and kind of tired of not being able to enroll into any hip-hop classes because I've taken it too much. So why not create a club where it's free and you don't have to feel pressured about a grade or testing," Arjona said. "So why not [create this club and] learn from not just one choreographer, but mainly? because there is a lot of people with lots of talent here."
Club adviser Patriceann Mead had been trying for many years to start up a dance club.
"I put the word out there for more than three years," Mead said. "We have a lot of talent on the campus, like break dancers, krumpers and hip-hop dancers, all who may not be in a formal dance classes, but are really good dancers. What I have done was allowed them to come in and use space in my classroom when I'm not using the whole space in the dance studio."
So far the club is in its beginning stages.
"The club just started," Cruz said. "We already knew we couldn't expect a lot of people, but ET, or Extreme Talent, is slowly going up and we're starting to get choreographers to come in and teach us."
"Once the club grows more, we hope to get a bigger crew," Arjona added.
Mead has a lot of faith in this club and with the officers.
"I had been waiting for students with leadership skills who can actually get it together," Mead said. "I had been working closely with these two students, and I believed these would be the group of students who can actually make it happen.
"I am really looking forward to watch them grow," she said.
President Arjona said he wants to bring all sorts of people into the club to learn different styles of dancing.
"I want [the students] to get away from the old main choreography and expand each students limits toward teaching and also learning new choreography and different styles," Arjona said.
"Also it brings more of a union toward the
students. You trust one another and also learn one other's gifts and talents. All while learning their style and their personality."
New member Arnold Barrera said he has really enjoyed his time in the club.
"I really like it," Barrera said. "With all the people I'm meeting here, it's a lot of fun."
Recently members of the club attended the Halloween Escape Event on Oct. 29 at Palomar.
Many of them including Arjona performed break dancing moves while in costume.
Another one of their first projects is a collaboration with the Black Student Union club on Dec 4.
"We have to make up a routine, teach choreography and cut music. The choreography will be easy; it's the cutting music that will be hard," Cruz said.
Even though Extreme Talent is just beginning, it is expected to grow and expand.
"Next semester we are hoping to get together two days in a week, instead of just on Mondays and have the club meet a night so more people can come," Cruz said. "So, in the future, we hope to form a dance crew within the club."
Be the first to comment on this story