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The nervousness was palpable on Sunday as six young women lined up in the multipurpose room of the Student Recreation and Fitness Center.
They were auditioning for the D-Fusion dance crew — a group that members say offers a more personal and passionate experience than traditional dance groups sponsored by the University of Maine.
Six female and three male dancers of diverse backgrounds and varying degrees of dance training, make up D-Fusion. It’s a local dance crew based on campus founded during the previous spring semester by UMaine students Forrest Dantzler and Adrian Matos.
Dantzler, now a fourth-year student studying secondary education and sociology, said that the group offers style, commitment and a passion for dance that he did not find in the UMaine Hip-Hop Dance Club.
“We all believed that with the abilities and talents we have for dance, we could branch away from the hip-hop club and start a dance crew, giving UMaine something it had never seen before,” Dantzler said.
D-Fusion performs at many of the same events as the hip-hop club, including the dance showcases and the International Dance Festival, but its members have greater freedom to choreograph their routines and express themselves as individuals. Current member and first-year student, Elise Applegate, said the club caters to all levels of ability, which can make it difficult for one dancer to stand out.
“So many people are in it, which makes it harder to feel like you are shining on stage,” Applegate said. “The opportunity to make a difference in the group is miniscule.”
Members of D-Fusion take the opportunity to challenge each other while also showing their abilities, even though they developed their dance skills in different ways. Some members, such as Applegate, are mostly self-taught, while others have years of technical training beginning at a young age.
“It doesn’t matter where you come from; you can turn anything into a hip-hop routine,” said Applegate. “No rules, no boundaries. Make it fun.”
According to Dantzler, it is the different perspectives of the members that make the D-Fusion crew stand out. Members bring a variety of backgrounds in belly dancing, ballet and jazz. Dantzler specializes in krumping, which is characterized by “hard-edged, intensified muscle movement.”
“The important thing about us is our name — D-Fusion. “The ‘D’ stands for diversified dancers,” Dantzler said. “We have different backgrounds of dance that come together to where it is named D-Fusion. We’re not like the hip-hop club or any other club on campus.”
The D-Fusion crew plans to expand by adding more members and branching out to the off-campus community. The group, which previously grew through word of mouth, held its first auditions this week and members have mixed feelings about the results.
“There were some girls who maybe weren’t there because they wanted to dance. Maybe they came because their friend asked them to. You can’t get the audience’s heart into it if yours isn’t there,” said Applegate, adding she was disappointed by a small turnout at auditions.
“I think we will try next semester and do a better job of broadcasting it,” said Kathleen Paquette, a first-year child psychology student and D-Fusion member. “It’s discouraging to hold auditions and have people say they will come and then not show up.”
Applegate attributes the low number of auditioning dancers to nervousness.
“It’s one thing to have the courage to say ‘Yes, I will be there,’ but when it comes down to it, auditions are scary,” she said.
The D-Fusion members were scouting for a combination of dance skill and passion in the young women who auditioned.
“We were looking for first ability and then the attitude that goes along with it, which can conquer a lack of technical ability,” Applegate said.
Paquette agreed and added that the crew needs dancers with their own ideas and choreography to contribute.
“We were looking for people who had heart or emotion in it. If you don’t have that when you’re dancing, it doesn’t look like any fun at all,” she said.
For this reason, Applegate said future auditions should require a freestyle piece.
“There are plenty of dancers out there who can copy what someone teaches them,” she said. “The thing about our group is that we create our own dances and then bring them together.”
Applegate and Paquette said they expect to recruit between two and three dancers from the audition, and that the decision will be a difficult one. The crew is satisfied with this week’s auditions, but members hope to hold more successful ones next semester — perhaps attracting more men to try out as well.
“That’s the plan we’re working on now and why we held the auditions. We usually perform in the showcases and the International Dance Festival, also little shows on campus for the community, but I see the crew growing in the future and hitting dance competitions around the state or around the country,” Dantzler said. “We’re talking an ‘America’s Best Dance Crew’ type of thing.”
With high aspirations and a variety of styles, Applegate admits that crew members occasionally clash over the choreography, themes and other group decisions.
“At the end of the day, I know we’ll still be a crew,” she said. “We’re all dancing because we love it, so we move on and come to a decision we can all deal with.”
Differences of opinion only make D-Fusion stronger.
“The fact that we have strong personalities, makes us different as a group,” Applegate said. “We have a depth that we feel like other crews don’t have, because they have one or two people who lead. It makes you look deeper into what you’re doing and collaborate.”
Issues of personality and group dynamics play a role when the crew looks for new dancers.
“Some of our friends tried out and we can’t base it on personal opinions,” Paquette said. “It’s the personality they gave when they danced that we looked for.”
When asked what they get from being in D-Fusion, members pointed to a feeling of family.
“It’s something I look forward to. As much as we fight and don’t agree all the time, dancing with them is something I look forward to every day,” Paquette said. “It’s a ‘home away from home’ feeling where there are no questions or judgments — something everybody looks for, I guess.”
Applegate agreed that her crew members are dependable and have her back, adding that D-Fusion is where she expresses herself.
“It’s an emotional escape where you can be wild, be crazy and put it out there in a way that makes people say ‘Damn, I know what you’re feeling just watching you move,’” she said.
