Break it Down: The heat was on at USU’s second Busta Groove
Erupting in the Ballroom of the Taggart Studnet Center Friday, the second annual Busta Groove welcomed many participants willing to show off their dance moves.
A crowd of students cheered on the entertainers as they moved and cavorted to the beat, hoping to advance to another round and eventually winning of the contest.
There were three categories the dancers could compete in: breakdancing, pop and lock and hip hop, for females only. Because the disc jockey got lost in Brigham City, the competition started a half hour later than the scheduled 7 p.m..
The hip hop dancers, Kelsey Benson and Stacy Hettinger (the only two enrolled female participants of all three categories), started the event off. At the end of the event, they again had the opportunity to display their talents in a final match, and then the judges voted Kelsey Benson the winner.
“I was surprised that I won because I died off at the end,” Benson, a freshman majoring in agronomy, said after the competition. “I love Stacy to death, and I’m glad that the winner could have been me or her.”
Benson has been dancing for 10 years, but first started her career in the jazz-dancing genre. Only for the past three years has she danced hip hop.
For the pop and lock genre, many contestants enrolled and competed in numerous occasions during the program.
Angie Dewey, a senior majoring in education, who was in charge of putting the program together, explained the definition of pop and lock.
“It’s pretty much like the robot,” she said. “You need to hold the movement and it’s not as graceful. The ‘pop’ of pop and lock comes because it looks like you are popping your joints. The ‘lock’ is more of the dancing style of it, when you complete a movement and then stop.”
The winner of the pop and lock category was Moses Castillo. He came from Layton, and dances around the state with a group called “dirty hands.”
In the breakdancing division there were more dancers who battled at various parts of the event as well.
The winner of the breakdancers was Corey Espinoza from Odgen. Espinoza dances with a group called “B-Boys,” and he, too, came into “busta groove” with many other competitions under his belt, he said.
“Breakdancing, to me, is just like moving your body to the beat,” Espinoza said. “You do whatever comes to your mind, but it’s not really about certain moves. I even use different pairs of shoes with each round and my style just kind of comes out on its own.”
The event featured 24 participants this year, 14 more than last year, and Dewey hopes it will continue to grow bigger.
“I actually came up with the idea last year during traditions week, hoping to make it a tradition,” she said. “I thought it would become really popular, so I launched it.”
Four organizations helped sponsored Busta Groove this year: Diversity, Executive VP, The President’s Cabinet, and Organizations and Traditions, all from Associated Students of Utah State University.
“It cost over $1,000 dollars to put together,” Dewey said. “Five hundred of it was for prize money for the winners and advertizing it around campus took some money too. We’re so thankful that these clubs all put out money to do it.”
A student in the crowd, Zac Bench, majoring in social work, expressed his excitement for “best of groove” featuring on campus.
“I think this is one of the coolest activities the school does,” he said. “The dancers are as professional as anywhere I’ve seen, and I’d be pretty upset if the school stopped doing it.”
-bretpmorley@cc.usu.edu
Keith Wille flips into a single handstand to impress the judges and beat the heat against his competing dancer (Photo by Michael Sharp)
A competetor looks on as another dancer kicks his legs through a handstand in front of the judges Thursday night at the secon annual Bust a Grooce contest. (Photo by Michael Sharp)