A video posted on Instagram by NEC’s dance team The Rising Stars, has drawn attention as some students said it is provocative, while the performers argue it is expressionism. The video, posted on Feb. 18, has nearly 200 views.
The caption reads:
“This was our first ever heels performance. We tried our best to do a Valentine’s day dance❤️❤️. It took a lot of effort and many tries to get it right and I hope you guys enjoy it.”
The video shows Christine Gordan and Allennycia ‘Allie’ Gillyard-Wallace, two members of the Rising Stars, dancing around chairs while wearing heels. Halfway through the video, they are joined by Hunter Nelson and Orlando Rojas, two male students at NEC. The men are seated in chairs while Gordan and Gillyard-Wallace dance around and on-top of them.
“The first half was alright because it was more of what I was accustomed to, but then they brought the men into it, and it looked like more of a private dance at a club,” said Nick Williams, a freshman at NEC.
“Explicit content is fine as long as it is executed into a dance. That is not dance,” said Tori McGowan, another freshman at NEC. “People already think of dance as not a sport, and they are making it worse by doing this, which is very frustrating to me.”
Although several students felt that the dance team’s Valentine’s Day video was too explicit, the dance team said that they took a lot of steps to make sure that their dance was not too sexual.
“I feel like I tried to keep it minimalistic in the sexual moves,” said Gordan. “You might think that is so crazy, but, in actuality, if you were to compare it to some of the dances I’ve seen on YouTube, it’s nothing.”
While they did want to keep the video from being too sexual, the dance team did want to have some sensuality in their dance in order to get their message across.
The dance was intended to encourage women to be proud of their bodies, not afraid to express themselves and to not need a man, Gillyard-Wallace said.
“Allie and I have two different body types; she’s more of a slimmer figure while I’m more of a plump, thick person. So, it just shows that it doesn’t matter your size or how your body is. You can still definitely do the moves and look beautiful and sexy while doing them,” said Gordan.
The hope was also to show that the team does different styles of dances beyond hip-hop and K-pop.
“I feel like it’ll branch out our community and push other people to possibly join,” said Gillyard-Wallace.
Despite intentions, many students interviewed said they felt it was not an appropriate post.
“The style of dancing was very questionable,” said Chloe Jerman-Brown, another student at NEC. “I do not think that was a good way to represent our school.”
“We’re trying to be as diverse as possible especially because we’re diverse ourselves so we can’t just be stuck in one thing or one category of dance,” said Gillyard-Wallace.
The dance team welcomes feedback, both positive and negative, and said they are open to suggestions for future dances.
