In this week’s Feature, Julia Tanaka examines the culture and struggles of Georgetown’s various dance teams:

Georgetown has a small but well-established dance community that ranges from the classical and modern ballet style of the Georgetown University Dance Company to the hip hop rhythm of Groove Theory. [...] But, despite their connections to the administration, many groups still struggle to find adequate practice space. While the dance community doesn’t receive the same publicity as other student groups, such as the International Relations Club, Georgetown dancers feel support from other students, particularly other dancers.

In News, Ryan Greene brings you the full details on Jack’s Boathouse’s pending legal action against the National Park Service.

Claire Zeng reports on WMATA’s proposal to bring a Metro tunnel through Georgetown and gauges reactions from the ANC.

For Sports, Keith Levinsky has the recap of Georgetown’s win over Seton Hall last night.

The Leisure section has Dayana Morales Gomez‘s  review of Nam June Paik: Global Visionary at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Page 13 investigates the secret lives of the members of the credit union, which includes making loans to Nicolas Cage and lobbying GUSA for money.

In Voices, Leigh Finnegan considers how privileged Georgetown students are just to be able to take prestigious, unpaid internships during the summer instead of working like she did.

Finally, on the Editorial Page, the Ed Board condemns the MPD for their alleged skepticism and victim-blaming when it comes to reporting on causes of sexual assault.

According to the most recent polls, Step Up Revolution probably will not win an Oscar this year, but its effect on the urge to torque is obvious. Georgetown’s premiere dance groups have seen a significant increase in membership this year.

Groove Theory, Georgetown’s only co-ed hip hop team, took in a much larger group of talented newcomers, compared to previous years. Groove Theory manager LaTara McLemore (COL ’13) explained why the team felt the need to expand. “This year in particular, we had a much, much larger number of dancers come audition, and we saw that so many had great potential,” she said.

“Groove Theory doesn’t have a cap. We don’t say, ‘We only want a team of 20.’ [This year’s auditions] were not necessarily more competitive, because we don’t have a limit. We took as many as we thought would be able to handle the choreography,” she added.

Unlike Groove Theory, this year the Georgetown University Dance Company continued to strictly limit the size of its group. This year’s GUDC audition was extremely competitive, according to GUDC co-director Erica Pincus (SFS ’13).

“GUDC is an academic course within the Department of Performing Arts and thus has a given number of available spots,” she said. “This year in particular we had an excellent group try out, which did make the auditions rather competitive. The arts community at Georgetown may be relatively small in size, but it is very talented.” Read the rest of this entry »