Clad in black morph suits, navy blue sleeveless sweatshirts, white gloves and their signature white masks, the all-male student dance group Enigma took the stage last Saturday in their show titled “Love is in the Air.”
Enigma is modeled after a dance group called the JabbaWockeeZ, which won the first season of “America’s Best Dance Crew.” Many of Enigma’s performances were originally choreographed by the JabbaWockeeZ. Led by Derek Yau ’15, Enigma includes Matt Alpert ’15, Nick DiAdamo ’15, Dylan Mott ’15 and Jorge Piccole ’14.
Like the JabbaWockeeZ, the members of Enigma perform wearing identical outfits in order to “direct their audience to look at us as a whole, rather than individual dancers, so they can see the whole picture,” as their program states.
The show was titled “Love is in the Air” because it was originally planned to be performed Valentine’s Day weekend. However, the members decided to keep the name as it still reflects themes of springtime.
The performance began with a dialogue called “Masculinity,” choreographed by the JabbaWockeeZ themselves. The dancers acted out the comedic voice-over to the great amusement of the audience. “We prefer songs that can incorporate aspects of acting into the dance,” said Derek Yau ’15, the leader of Enigma.
The dialogue quickly led into a performance of “Single Ladies,” also choreographed by the JabbaWockeeZ. The dancers maintained their comedic entertainment, and the audience laughed and clapped for the ironic selection.
Next, Tom Feigenbaum ’15 took the stage as the show’s MC. He gave a quick background of the group and thanked the audience members for attending the Enigma’s first public performance. He went on to introduce the members of the group as they ran out onto the stage, blowing kisses and saluting the crowd.
After the introduction, the group started off into three dances called “True Love’s First Kiss,” “Every Time We Touch” and “Science and Faith.” Not only do these songs accurately depict the show’s theme, but they were also all choreographed by the members of Enigma themselves. “We all come together to throw in ideas for dances. It is a group effort,” said Derek Yau ’15 about choreographing their own dances.
The group continued on to dance to popular songs such as Nelly’s “Just a Dream,” Britney Spears’ “Toxic,” and Jesse McCartney’s “Beautiful Soul.” The group says that they enjoy doing popular songs and childhood songs that audience members can easily relate to. “I really liked that they chose songs that we all know and love. It made it easy to be a part of the performance and want to see more,” said Mackenzie Bradford ’15.
Enigma held true to that promise as they performed “Kiss the Girl,” a song featured in Disney’s “The Little Mermaid.” The group surprised the audience by bringing Alex Becker ’15 up to the stage. Sitting her down in a chair, they serenaded her throughout the dance. Becker later said that the experience was an interesting one.
The performance came to a close with elaborate and entertaining renditions of everything from the soundtrack of Disney’s “Hercules” to the Backstreet Boys’ “Bye Bye Bye.” The audience, mostly made up of Lowers, applauded and laughed as they enjoyed the comical show.
Enigma hinted at the possibility of another performance with the theme of “Childhood Memories” in the future.
