Breakdancing hits the halls again

The administration has repealed the breakdancing ban begun last year and allowed the reinstatement of the Breakdancing Club, formerly known as the Urban Dance Movement.

Senior David Hesler, the Breakdance Club President, hopes the club will practice "as much as possible," but initially the club will only meet on Wednesdays at 2:10 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. in room 138, sponsored by history teacher and official Breakdance Club Sponsor Lansing Freeman.

Spanish teacher Sabrina Keenan and English teacher Sandra Ivey have also agreed to sponsor after school meetings on Tuesdays and Thursdays, respectively.

Lunch sponsors are currently unknown, but Hesler says that club members will need to arrange sponsors for lunch practices themselves. "[The club members] are pretty much on their own," he explained.

The main goals of the club this year, according to Hesler, are to get back on track and to recruit new members. "We really didn't do anything last year," he said. In particular, Hesler hopes to turn the club into a cohesive unit with practiced routines. He believes that this will make it easier both to perform in pep rallies and to have something ready for short-notice performances.

In addition, he pointed out that most club members are upperclassmen and that without new members, the club will most likely disappear after this year's juniors graduate.

The club's recruiting method will primarily consist of word-of-mouth, but another InfoFlow "Check it Out" video is in the works for those who missed the one aired Tuesday, Sept. 7. He also hopes that lunch practices will serve to draw the attention of prospective members.

Despite low interest in students formally joining the club last year, these methods seem to be working. "I think we got a pretty good turnout. There were about 15 [to] 20 people there," said Hesler of the club's first meeting Wednesday, Sept. 8.

"The club is really being revived by the Freshman Class," agreed junior Greg Donaldson, who joined the club in his first year at Blair.

At the Activity Fair on Friday, Sept. 10, club members performed various moves and crowd-pleasers in an attempt to recruit new members. Twenty-nine students signed up to join the club.

With the addition of new members, though, Hesler is adamant that the club will not practice on school property without a sponsor in order to avoid repeated trouble with the school administration.

The decision to allow breakdancing this year was the result of meetings last year between club members, Principal Phillip Gainous and the SGA following the ban on the activity. Last year's breakdancing ban remained firm in order to allow tempers to cool and to avoid the administrative nightmares associated with resurrecting a club within the last weeks of the school year.

However, the decision allowed for the rebirth of breakdancing during the school year. Unexpectedly, Hesler said that he has met no opposition to this year's reinstatement of the Breakdance Club. "Mr. Gainous is a nice guy, as long as [the Breakdancing Club] follows his rules," he said.

Those talks spawned an attractive side benefit as well - permission to use the wrestling room after school. While access would be limited to times prescheduled with Gainous and Health and Physical Education Department head Cynthia Changuris, any access at all facilitates an easier and more padded practice location for less forgiving moves and for beginners to the breaking scene.