Eric Jedd
Equinox Staff
On Saturday, April 21, America’s number one dance crew visited Keene State College to perform for the students, as well as dance with them.
Phunk Phenomenon is a famous dance crew that appeared on the TV show “America’s Best Dance Crew.” Reia Briggs-Connor, a former New England Patriots Cheerleader, created a full dance theater company in 1995, and then went on to develop Phunk Phenomenon.
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The dance crew took the title of best in America when they competed in season six of “America’s Best Dance Crew.”
The Social Activities Council (SAC) organization of KSC hosted the dance company Phunk Phenomenon in the Mabel Brown Room as a part of the organization’s Spring Phenomenon events.
The organization of the rave included a DJ playing songs to which students and attendees danced, a beat box performer, and three different dance performances by Phunk Phenomenon. All of these transitioned from one to the other, varying the rave into three separate acts.
Each section of the performance included a segment of time devoted to playing dance music.
After each segment of dance time, a professional beat boxer got the crowd pumped and ready for Phunk Phenomenon by showcasing his talent.
Afterwards, Phunk Phenomenon’s seven dance members took to the stage dancing to an assortment of blended and remixed songs.
This set-up repeated three times so that people coming at different times to the rave could see a performance.
The different performances featured Phunk Phenomenon dancing around the stage in different choreographed moves and styles.
Different moves and acrobatics included the performers dancing around and shifting positions in the lineup.
Then when someone got up to the front lineup, that performer did an individual dance or acrobatic, such as breakdancing or backflips.
Along with performing, Phunk Phenomenon helped promote Hip Hop for Hope, an organization designed to promote awareness and raise money for kids affected by Sanfilippo Syndrome, a disease that affects the brain and gives the person afflicted a lifespan of 10-12 years.
The group sold t-shirts to help with the promotion and funding for people with this disease.
All the proceeds from the t-shirt sales went to help out the organization.
The t-shirts themselves featured the Hip Hop for Hope logo, and on the back of the shirts two web addresses, www.teamsanflippo.org and www.jaredsfight.org, helped spread the word.
Dayna Coleman, president of SAC, said that the council wanted to have a dance crew since the beginning of the year, and when they attended their activities conference in fall 2011, Phunk Phenomenon seemed like the perfect choice.
“They are right from Boston and a lot of people from this area know them really well. They’re America’s Best Dance Crew. We really just wanted to bring an event that a lot of people would know about and would provide and extra hip to the weekend,” Coleman said.
Coleman also mentioned that the event was catered by the Sodexo Company, which also set up a 21 and up cash bar in the balcony section of the Mabel Brown Room.
“We had an entire VIP section upstairs. It was all decorated nicely and served food and alcoholic drinks,” Coleman said.
Jen Grivers, a KSC student said, “I thought the show was great. It was good to have them back. I watch the show on TV, and it was really cool to see them in person. My favorite part was probably just having the performers come out into the crowd, and when people went up on the stage.”
Other KSC students said, “It was honestly great, I videotaped the performance the whole time,” or, “It was awesome! I thought it was really cool that everyone else could jump up on the stage with them. It was really interactive I think,” and another comment on the entire event, “The music was good, the lights were good, everything was great.”
Eric Jedd can be contacted at
ejedd@keene-equinox.com