Passion of Jazz Dance, UCDC

By Oh Uhl, Tribune Reporter

I learned swing dance when I was a middle school student. Since then I have loved dancing but I could not keep with it because of concentrating on studying during high school. For this reason, I looked for a dance club on campus and found United College Dancing Club (UCDC), which was established in 1982. It is combined with several universities in Gwangju including Chonnam National University (CNU) and Chosun University. Although the club members mainly study the basics of jazz dance and practice jazz movements, they do other various dances such as popping and girls hip-hop.

They have annually participated in CNU’s festivals and dance performances for Gwangju citizens. Now, the UCDC is preparing a performance which will be held at the May 18 Commemoration Culture Center on November 15.
When I visited the club room, the club members received me with delight. They were just starting to warm up when I joined them. They said that it was very important to release their muscle tension before doing jazz dance because it is quite an intense dance. We started with the similar basic gymnastics moves like I did in high school. I was good at gymnastics, and I thought this would help a lot. After we finished warming up, we went into training for jazz dance.

They seemed to think I could easily follow their dance motions, and I felt the same. Contrary to my expectations, however, I could not do them well even though I tried to follow their motions. The dance motions and jazz rhythm were unfamiliar and difficult to me. They found that I had great difficulty in doing jazz dance and taught me as a beginner. Thus, I repeated attractive waves and agile steps which are the basic elements of jazz dance several times. It was not easy for me to follow. I stopped dancing and then I watched them for a moment. I realized it requires a great amount of practice for beginners to be able to dance as well as they do.

We took a rest for a while and started to practice again. At that time, I learned a new dance, the hustle, which is an impetuous dance with disco music. It seemed to be easy but I could not even follow it. What a poor dancer! Although I had a hard time learning jazz dance, it was a great opportunity for me because I learned how to do jazz dance a little, and I could feel excitement as if I were back in my high school days.