Disi-Dance

Amid cheers of "DiSi — ac!" and catcalls to roommates and friends, the audience waits rather impatiently for the DiSiac show to begin. This is the first of five performances that DiSiac is literally cramming into Forbes BlackBox Theater this weekend.

Though Forbes is no one's idea of an ideal venue for any performance, people make the harrowing trek. Lots of people. It's nearly a full house. The filler tape of Britney Spears and Debbie Gibson thankfully ends, and the lights quickly fade to black. Offstage you can hear the dancers psyching themselves up, chanting and yelling, hoping for a good show.

And it is a good show. In the next hour and a half DiSiac does what it does best — performs an eclectic mix of dance genres with a constant level of energy and enthusiasm. Hip-hop pieces are interspersed with lyrical dances. The requisite "sex" piece is in the mix as well as a fun tap number.

And DiSiac's signature jazzy, high-energy company pieces cap both ends of the performance. While not as technically masterful as some dancers on campus, DiSiac members rival anyone for sheer love of dancing.

Particularly impressive was the choreographic work of Jaime Taylor '01, whose haunting piece titled "Fascination" was the best example of the technical skill of the group. Set to Alanis Morrisette's "Uninvited" this piece was full of slow, sustained movements, emphasizing the control and expressiveness of the dancers.

Micah Carr '03 and Kweku Ndoum '00 did a nice job of bringing an authentic hip-hop feel to the show with their collaboration entitled "Contact," an up-tempo piece that energized the crowd.

Two of the most creative installments of the evening were Mariana Garcia '01's "Departure," and Giselle Woo '02's "River." The first was a lengthy lyrical number that symbolically pitted the forces of good and evil with music ranging from Guster to Tori Amos. Woo's contribution consisted of six DiSiac members singing "The Rose" a capella with strong, clear voices while two male and three females danced in front of them.

But a DiSiac show is more than just a compilation of dance routines. Company members express a real affinity toward one another, a bond that is obvious when they perform. For Tina Lai '00, "DiSiac has never been just a company, it's always been a family." Luis Rodriguiez '00 agreed. "DiSiac has been my home these past two years," he said.

The intense bond of the group can be explained partly by its recent beginning. Many of the current members have been around since the group's formation and feel proud to be the first crop of members of this highly talented and successful troupe. "It's scary and exciting to bring a new organization to campus — you never know if it'll work," said founding member Lauren Peccoralo '01.

The popularity of DiSiac — illustrated by its string of sold-out shows — proves that it has worked.

Performing original choreography at the International Festival in the spring of 1998 under the name International Heat of Princeton, the group that would later be known as DiSiac made its debut. As Gallant Nien '01 explained, "Myself and Darayan [Didier-Blanchard '00] assembled a group of friends to dance at the Festival. It was so much fun, and we got such a positive response that we decided to make it full-time fun."

Peccoralo and Garcia, who were also part of IHOP, joined Nien and Didier-Blanchard to form the renamed DiSiac. The group soon became a recognized student organization. Auditions were held the following fall, luring a good number of students aching to dance. Later that semester DiSiac performed to packed audiences in Forbes BlackBox and the DiSi-phenomenon was born.

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Since then, DiSiac's dance card has been full. It has supplemented its regular semester shows — this fall it performed in Murray-Dodge Theater — with shows in Chancellor Green and Wilson College.

DiSiac broadens the dance landscape at Princeton, offering a creative outlet to those who might not have found their niche in one of the other dance companies. Watching the DiSiacers strut and spin, kick and pivot, gladly exhausting themselves for the audience one can almost understand the excessive use of "DiSi" as a prefix — as in "Disi-love," "Disi-family" and "Disi-dance" — that permeates the program's biographies.

There is the feeling that something new and exciting is happening at a DiSiac show, that there is a special code among the dancers. With all this it's hard to imagine the pre-DiSiac days at Princeton.

Thankfully, those days are over.