University Chronicle

Issue date: 2/3/10 Section: Campus & Life

The national freestyle dance group, the Groovaloos played a nearly sold out performance Jan. 26 at the Verne Riffe Center for the Art's main theatre. People from all over the area piled into the theatre to catch one of the Groovaloo's only Ohio performances.

Not only has the group performed as special guests on such TV shows as "So You Think You Can Dance" and "The Wayne Brady Show," but also on commercials for major companies like McDonalds and Apple. This talented group of dancers also has a huge resume working with recording artists such as Madonna, Miley Cyrus, Justin Timberlake and Beyonce.

The group's web site proclaims that "Groovaloo combines the authenticity of a chorus line with the energy of Stomp as it embarks on a journey through the diverse world of hip hop dance." But I found it to be more like a motivational middle school assembly with better than average dancers.

Do not get me wrong, all of the dancers were very impressive and I watched in amazement during a couple of their "we came from the streets" sketches. But as a whole, the show was a letdown.

From reading their web site and seeing a handful of YouTube videos, I was expecting an hour and a half show with no intermission and no stopping. Instead I was greeted with generic stories from some of the original Groovaloo members' lives that took up more than half of the show time. Multiple stories were read aloud while the story's protagonist walks around, mainly for people who are too lazy or too young to read the actual biographies of founding members, or those who went with a fan, but had no idea what he/she was getting him/herself into and those who simply don't care.

For someone expecting high-energy dance routines, the stories really dragged on and took away from the enjoyment of the show.

The whole idea of the show was to be yourself. And as the show's main narrator Boogie Man so elegantly put it, "Life isn't always choreographed, sometimes you have to freestyle."

They took several recognizable dance styles including b-boy, ballet, jazz, hip-hop and tap, blended them together and danced over phoned-in hip-hop songs. The whole premise is ridiculous because while they preach about freestyle, it is obvious for a show of this caliber, there is no freestyling whatsoever. The group makes its money by exploiting the art of actual freestyle by choreographing dance moves to look like freestyle.

There was such a huge variation of age groups at the show, and I can see why this groups' blend of entertainment does so well. It is quite tame in subject matter, even though the Groovaloos supposedly had very bad lives. (Most of the narratives however were variations of the same "no one believes in me" story).

The show also has a positive message, and is even able to work in some religious imagery during a couple of the sketches which might aid in appealing to audience members who looking for something more than just dancing.

The LA Times called the show "inspirational," but it only inspired me to avoid shows such as this like the plague in the future and change the channel the next time they are on TV.

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