One could likely hear applause and animated cheering emanating from the FXT dance show the night of Saturday May 1; below the white tent next to Usdan, students gathered, safely, for the performance. Year after year, FXT continues to be the heartbeat of hip-hop on campus. Composed of three distinct hip-hop groups—Fusion, X-Tacy, and Precision Troupe, or Troupe for short—the event is an opportunity for distinct styles of hip-hop dance to intertwine and for dancers to explore new territories of movement.

Fusion Co-Director Kevonte Payton ’22 explained that Fusion’s name is a direct nod to the hip-hop style that the group embraces.

“We look at Fusion as a fusion of hip-hop styles, a fusion of all different styles in one,” Payton said. “It’s hard-hitting and bouncy hip-hop. X-Tacy is your more exclusive, sexy hip-hop. It’s very intimate and all about being at one with your body. Troupe is the groovy hip-hop group. They are throwback-ish. They have groovy choreo, flowy choreo. FXT gives you sexy, FXT gives you sassy, FXT gives you groove!”

Co-Director of Fusion Serena Aimen ’22 said that one of her favorite parts of performances, like FXT’s show, is supporting team members while they are on stage.

“I love screaming people’s names when they’re dancing,” Aimen said. “I try to make them feel really good when they’re dancing because it’s a way to gain confidence and to feel like you’re seen on this campus when it’s so easy to be anonymous.”

Many FXT members do not initially have a background in hip-hop dance. Fusion Co-Director Jocelyn Maeyama ’22 explained that she came to X-Tacy and Fusion with different dance experience. 

“I come from a more contemporary background, and only dabbled in hip-hop a few times before coming to college,” Maeyama said. “When I went to the fall showcase my freshman year, I thought X-Tacy had the strongest choreography, and I knew I wanted to audition.” 

Payton, on the other hand, entered freshman year without a single dance move under his belt. 

“Freshman year, I’d never really danced before,” Payton said. “So, when I got introduced to the hip-hop dance teams after the fall showcase, I wasn’t as confident about dancing [sexily] in a public place. I was set on not doing X-Tacy because they had intense sexual choreo.” 

However, Payton explained, he quickly changed his mind. 

“Long story short, my freshman year I got into both X-Tacy and Fusion,” Payton said.

Co-Director of X-Tacy Liz Atalig ’22 said she remembers how shy she felt the first time she ever considered auditioning.

“When sophomore year rolled around, I went to my first showcase,” Atalig said. “Part of me wanted to audition, but I was very shy. I was very different than I am right now. It took my friends to convince me to go. I just told myself I was gonna go and see what happens. I auditioned for X-Tacy and Troupe, and I guess they saw something in me, ’cause I got into the groups. I can still remember seeing them perform and thinking, ‘Wow, I want to do that. Maybe that can be me.’” 

Aimen said she looks back on her freshman year audition and remembers feeling unqualified but eager to try something new.

“I auditioned for Fusion my freshman year, kind of as a joke because I didn’t have confidence in my hip-hop skills,” Aimen said. “I’ve been dancing since I was four, but hip-hop wasn’t the dance I had been taught when I was younger. I was mostly a ballet and contemporary dancer. I thought it would be fun to audition because I’d been dancing my entire life. I feel empty when I’m not doing it.”

The camaraderie of the groups and the electrifying energy that is created when they come together to create FXT is where Maeyama said she has found some of her closest friends.

“The community has been one of the best parts of my time at Wesleyan,” Maeyama said. “Since it is supportive and non-hierarchical, it is just such a great place to grow as a dancer and as a person.”

The pandemic has shifted the group’s ability to build connections with each other, so the directors said they went the extra mile to maintain the sense of community that was so important to them during their experiences as first year students.

“Honestly, the experience of putting on a show is what builds our community the most, but we did push to make sure everyone knew who they were dancing in a room with, and we were luckily able to put together some COVID-safe dinners,” Maeyama explained. 

COVID-19 made the experience of participating in FXT that much more coveted: for many dancers, rehearsals were a rare chance to get outside and feel involved in something. It was particularly special for FXT members to have the chance to perform this semester. 

The choreography at the FXT show was augmented by a range of costumes, featuring outfits from neon colors to lingerie lace. With some difficulty, Maeyama decided the intro piece was her favorite because it was especially fun to rehearse, with energetic dancers on the sides of the stage.

Payton, on the other hand, said he had a clear favorite. 

“My favorite piece was Liz and Jocelyn’s, because every time I watched it I got so mad, I was like, ‘Damn they should have put me in this piece,’” Payton said. “The transitions were great, the energy was there, and it was really different. They gave everyone their own time to shine and there was so much going on at once.” 

Atalig struggled to pick her favorite, and decided on two: “In It” and “Touch It,” the latter of which was choreographed by Brianna Johnson ’24, who brought her own dance background and enthusiasm.

“Everyone in FXT was so excited with that piece, so I am very excited to see what she does in the future,” Atalig said of Johnson. 

Regardless of a person’s role or time spent in the dance groups, anyone is welcome to choreograph for FXT. Maeyama said that the supportive and non-stratified nature of the  program makes it a rewarding place to grow as a dancer and as a person. 

Both Atalig and Payton said they began choreographing their freshman year, each approaching the challenge from a slightly different angle.

“I listen to the music a lot, and I think ahead of time,” Atalig explained. “I like to find a combination of planning things and freestyling, too. I’ve been trying to explore a wide range of styles: I’ve done faster hip-hop pieces, slower flowy ones, and also heels. It’s very fun to get creative and if you hear a new song you want to choreograph to. Or, you might be inspired by other people in the dance group.”

Payton acknowledged that sometimes, when he’s choreographing, the moves don’t come naturally; he might get stuck on one section that keeps him from moving forward. He offered advice to dancers who similarly lose their flow while choreographing.

“If I come up with a move that does not work, I decide to incorporate it at other points in the dance,” Payton explained. “All in all, choreographing has been go-with-the-flow and it’s important not to stress too much about it because the one thing I realize is, if you don’t have faith in yourself and your ability to make choreography or dance, sometimes you just have to add an arm here or a hip there.”

Maeyama, Payton, and Atalig are all taking a hip-hop class, where they learn the foundations of the dance form. Maeyama described how the course has given her a newfound ability to think through new movement pathways rather than being locked into the same pattern. 

“We’re always learning by generating choreography and learning choreography and taking classes and learning from each other,” Maeyama said. “They just exist in this endless loop, and allow us to generate better choreography.”

Now and going forward, FXT is passionate about extending the hip-hop community to the Wesleyan community at large. Payton explained that the groups are going to try to open dance classes to people who want to be engaged in the hip-hop community, but aren’t quite comfortable with the movements or don’t know where to start.

“We love hip-hop and we want everyone else to learn more about it,” Payton said.  “We want to bring hip-hop to campus and get people to love it as much as we do.”

Aimen added her own commentary, explaining her hopes for hip-hop culture on campus in years to come. She recognized how the Wesleyan dance community is co-opting and appropriating hip-hop to fit the University stage scene, while the dance form was born in the Southern Bronx in the early 1970s among majority Black communities. 

“We do want to have more workshops and teach the other members the legacy of hip-hop,” Aimen said “We want to draw more attention to how it originated, and what it means to be a person at a university doing hip-hop.” 

 

Abby Glassman can be reached at aglassman@wesleyan.edu. 

Sonia Menken can be reached at smenken@wesleyan.edu.