Stuy Squad 2018 Review

As always, the auditorium was packed with excited students for this year’s Stuy Squad performance, and the line went through the lobby. Once the audience (or at least most of it) was seated in the auditorium, the board came onstage to introduce their show. This year’s Stuy Squad performance thrived under seniors Snigdha Sarker, Sammie Paul, Peter Lee, Ran Yoo, Michela Marchini, and Caitlin Chin. Stuy Squad 2018 co-president Snigdha Sarker said of her experience with Stuy Squad: “Stuy Squad has been the show that unites the entire dance community of Stuyvesant. This is especially due to the fact that whether you are a beginner or an experienced dancer, or whether you want to experiment with tap or hip hop or any other kind of dance, Stuy Squad has a place for everyone to participate. The show has continued to get bigger with every year and we expect that within the next few years even more styles of dance will be represented.”

The first crew to come onstage was tap, dazzling the audience in their glittering blue jackets. They danced flawlessly to a variety of pop songs, with “Uptown Funk” as their finale.

As the stage began to glow red, J-Pop came out in red shirts and white suspenders, dancing with dizzying speed and agility. They were followed by modern, which was stunningly graceful. Girls Hip Hop B was a showstopper, marching out in vibrant red jackets. Despite being one of the larger groups, they were as synchronized as any of the other crews.

Seniors Amy Ren, Anna Pacheco, and Hannah Huang hosted the show. The three kept the audience excited and engaged with their antics in between numbers, occasionally doing silly imitations of the different crews before introducing them. Their energetic, skit-like routines helped make Stuy Squad feel like a cohesive show, not just a collection of random dance numbers.

Coed K-Pop, from directors Michelle Yang, Danny Kim, Ryan Kim, and Jhoonho Kim drew the loudest reaction from the audience. In their lengthy performance, each song felt like an entirely different number. The large crew continuously swapped out its members, so that there was a different sub-crew onstage for each song. Regardless of this, the audience’s excitement was completely renewed every time a new routine began. It was as surreal as it was fun to watch, and stood out from all the other crews. Girls K-Pop evoked just as big of a reaction from the audience.

Bollywood, a small crew with great choreography and eye-catching costumes, also stood out from the crowd. Latin, cute and energetic, gave way to belly. Belly was sassy, skillful, and well-choreographed as always. Step X and Y definitely captured the enthusiasm of the crowd with their loud, but not at all clumsy, performance.

Boys Hip Hop B (BHHB), one of the most anticipated groups of the night, literally hopped onstage and right into their dance with the utmost confidence. For the beginning of their performance, directors Jeff Lin, Simon Min, Henry Carver, and Colin Dan opted for more emotional music, though the dancing was smooth and carefree. Towards the end of the performance, the entire audience started rapping along with the music. BHHB member Jesse Hall said, “From my, albeit exacting, quality standards, the show was rough as all hell. But no one seemed to notice, so who cares? All I will remember is the pleasant emptiness of performing.”

Undoubtedly, the biggest showstoppers of the night were Boys Hip Hop A (BHHA), directed by Philip Park, Kyle Tau, Peter Lee, and Marvin Wong, and Girls Hip Hop A (GHHA), directed by Olivia He, Olivia Chan, Kristina Kim, and Queenie Xiang. Cool, committed, and remarkably talented, the members of both crews stole the show (and GHHA rocked their camouflage pants). One of the best qualities of both crews was their flawless synchronization, and GHHA was arguably more creative and unique in their choreography, while GHHB was faster-paced.

To those of us who aren’t dancers, the Stuy Squad crews make it look easy. It looks almost too good to be a high school dance performance. But even with the months of rehearsal beforehand, things don’t always go as planned in Stuy Squad, and it isn’t easy by any means. Sophomore Talia Pomeroy highlighted some of the difficulties that come with being a Stuy Squad crew member: “I was in tap and flow. I found Stuy Squad to be a really stressful and rewarding experience. Even though it wasn’t my first performance, I was still super nervous beforehand. It's a lot of pressure being up there, because everyone always expects you to be amazing at dancing or something. It's also hard [for tap] because we open the show and we set the standard for everyone else. For tap, our music didn't turn on right away, and I think we all sort of freaked out, but in the end, everyone said our number looked amazing. For flow, it's all about the glow-sticks, and of course mine didn't crack. Again, most people couldn't tell but like for me it was a pretty upsetting experience to have all that effort over months of rehearsal come crashing down like that at the performance. But ultimately I guess it's really not about just the performance itself. And yeah, I know it sounds dumb, but you become really close with your fellow crew members and make lots of lasting friends through them.”