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By Cameron Small
Hometown Weekly Intern
Hip-hop dance is gaining in popularity, perhaps because of the new broadway musical “Hamilton.” So much has its popularity gained, in fact, that this past week, the Walpole Recreation Department offered hip-hop dance classes for students ages five to 13, with an end performance on Friday August 5, at the Boyden Elementary School where they practiced. The class met daily for three hours, culminating in the final performance.
Through the class, students danced to “Cruella de Ville” by Selena Gomez, “Cake by the Ocean” by DNCE, “Shut Up and Dance” by Walk the Moon, “Starships” by Nicki Minaj, and “Tic Toc” by Ke$ha. Clean versions of the songs were used in instances where there might have been explicit lyrics or more adult themes. (For example, at the beginning of “Tic Toc,” the lyrics the kids danced to were “I’m about to get silly” instead of “tipsy.”) Besides this, not all of the songs were used—instead, about a minute of the music was used.
The kids were especially eager to demonstrate what they learned. They were also eager for the photo-op that came with it - the dancers asked for solo and group pictures in addition to the group shots of them dancing.
If not for Hamilton, how did hip-hop find its way to Walpole? The answer lies in the teacher of the class, Aly Pereira. Pereira works for a hip-hop company called Phunk Phenomenon. It’s possible you’ve heard of them, because they often dance at the Boston Celtics games. When not performing with Phunk, Pereira teaches dance and musical theater.
Pereira originally reached out to the Walpole Recreation Department because there was not initially going to be a dance or musical theater option available for Walpole youth this summer. In addition to the hip-hop dance class, Pereira taught a musical theater class based off of Disney’s “Frozen,” in which a few of the hip-hop girls performed.
According to Pereira, hip-hop is “more raw and hardcore” than other styles of dance. “There’s not too much technique in which everything has to be on-point. You can add your own flavor to it.”
If you missed the week-session but have interest in learning hip-hop, Pereira will be back for a similar program in Medfield later this fall.
