Breaking it down

By Christina Davies

davi0455@algonquincollege.com

On any given Wednesday or Sunday evening on the fourth floor of Carleton University's Tory Building, you'll hear hip-hop blaring, sneakers squeaking against the floor and someone yelling "5... 6... 7... 8."

This is the practice space for Dy-Verse, a dance crew comprised of students from Algonquin College, Ottawa and Carleton universities and one still in high school.

The idea originated with Duance Belleau, and came to life when he and Kenny Belleus were playing basketball one day at Algonquin, while Belleus was studying in the law clerk program at the college.

"He was telling me how he was into dancing and I was into dancing too, so he told me he was starting a new dance group," said Belleus.

"We got together on my birthday, Dec. 10 (2006) for the first practice and from that day on we've had some new members come in."

One of those members is Arnaldo Lavres, studying to become a translator in English, French, Spanish and Portugese, who wants to work in family law.

"I joined them in February after Black History when they had this big show and it's just been going on since then," he said.

Their first show was a performance for Black History Month at Carleton University, and since then they've danced at other shows and competition, including the Big Bang Dance Competition in Montreal in Sept., where they placed second.

They're planning another performance at Carleton, a collaboration with an all-female group in January. As it stands now, Dy-Verse is an all-male crew, but plan to hold auditions for female members in the coming year.