Editor’s note: This article was initially published in The Daily Gazette, Swarthmore’s online, daily newspaper founded in Fall 1996. As of Fall 2018, the DG has merged with The Phoenix. See the about page to read more about the DG.
Swarthmore’s renowned dance group, Rhythm N Motion, has been captivating the Swarthmore campus with its diverse beats and infectious choreography for over five years. At 8 p.m. on Saturday, April 5th, on LPAC main stage, Rhythm and Motion will continue their legacy of celebrating the styles of the African Diaspora and enchanting the TriCo community.
Featured, as always, will be several pieces created by student choreographers in styles influenced by African and Latin dance. This ranges from Hip Hop and Salsa to traditional African. Each performance seeks to present a facet of the African Diaspora in a new light, while simultaneously creating a message and having fun. This year, dances include a piece by Brandon Washington ’08, which will use dance to tell the story of different aspects of his life. Also featured is a piece by Amanda Preston, of Bryn Mawr College, who cast her dancers as “broken toys.”
“I think all of the choreographers spent a lot of time thinking about the concepts of each piece,” says Lily Ng ’08, the group’s publicity manager and a dancer. “As a result, each dancer performs in each piece hoping to present a specific message.”
Ng, along with Omar Ramadan ’08, co-choreographed a piece for this semester’s concert. She hopes that the audience will enjoy it as much as its creators do. For the group as a whole, Ng says, “Ultimately, I want the audience to get a sense of how creative and versatile each of us are as dancers. As a senior in the company, I’ve seen how RnM has grown, and hope that the crowd will stay entertained as we dance to new and various interpretations of the African Diaspora.”
G Patrick ’10, another of the show’s choreographers, hopes that the audience will recognize and share the joy that each RnM dancer feels as they perform. “I have two favorite parts of the show,” says Patrick. “The first comes from hearing an uproar of sometimes 700+ people as the cymbals signify the beginning of the concert. The second is performing a piece that mesmerizes, delights, and leaves an audience in hysterics. When you leave the stage, the feeling makes you take a breath and smile.”