Bringing the heat
Kalabash Dance Troupe – March 30, 2008
Photos: Ben Addonizio
Dancers dressed as children with striped knee high socks, short jean shorts and colorful polos, ran around the stage like children on a playground. Waving their arms and laughing, the performers’ moves were set to reggae and hip hop remixed to childhood classics such as the ‘Rugrats’ and ‘Sesame Street’ theme songs.
This was just one act from the Kalabash Dance Troupe’s performance, ‘A Caribbean Love Has Never Lasted So Long: 20 Years and Still Going Strong,’ on Friday night in Goldstein Auditorium. The troupe celebrated its 20th anniversary with performances focusing on different kinds of love. The night featured eight shows, which expressed different forms of Caribbean love through dance.
The Brazilian Ensemble set the mood for a spirited Caribbean performance. The dancers beat large drums that hung from their necks and twirled drum sticks in the air, while others banged tambourines against the palms of their hands – filling the air with Caribbean sounds.
Dozens of friends and family of the dancers traveled from as far away as Maryland, Ohio and Florida to see the annual performance.
Ravae Duhaney and Cierra Crosson, two college freshmen from Maryland, traveled to Syracuse to watch their friend Syreeta Herbert, also a freshman and treasurer of the Kalabash group.
‘We knew she was with Kalabash but wanted to come up and see her,’ Crosson said. ‘I’ve never seen a full performance of just Caribbean dance. You go to a party and see that kind of dancing, but you never see it performed.’
After a few minutes of ‘Love of Innocence,’ the child-themed dance, the music cut out and a reggae/rap mix provided the beat and rhythms for Kalabash’s tightly choreographed hip hop moves.
In a less innocent act entitled the ‘Love of Passion’ dancers in black top hats, tight black tank tops, sheer tights and short black shorts, reenacted passion and love to slow, seductive R&B and hip hop music. The dancers crawled across the stage building a passionate atmosphere.
The various performances celebrated the Caribbean culture as well as the diverse backgrounds of each of the 12 members of Kalabash, who among them, have ties to Jamaica, Thailand, Puerto Rico, Chad, Lebanon and Barbados.
In addition to the diverse cultures on stage, Kalabash invited SU Funk Break, a breakdancing group on campus, to perform alongside the troupe for a free-spirited mood.
‘They are a new group,’ said Sade Allen, the Kalabash coordinator. ‘They are really trying to get out there and show that (breakdancing) is present on campus. I thought (it) would be a cool addition because it’s not something you regularly see at any event.’
The ‘Love of Freedom’ act featured the Kalabash and SU Funk Break reenacting a gang scene, which opened to the ‘Bad Boys’ theme song. While members of Kalabash danced on stage, two SU Funk Break dancers entered from the side of the stage and fired mock gun shots supposedly ‘killing’ the Kalabash members and silencing the audience.
The skit was intended to address issues present, not only within the Caribbean culture but any urban community. The Kalabash members came alive toward the end of the skit as the two groups set aside their differences and danced together to the song ‘Freedom.’
Altogether, strong choreography and upbeat, smooth rhythms of familiar songs helped engage the audience in a night dedicated to love and dance.
‘I feel like dancing now,’ said Anna Schalhoub, a freshman international relations major, after the show. ‘It was definitely great.’
