ELYSE GRIECO
Life & Arts Editor
EnFusion will be hosting their first ever Battle of the SUNYs this Saturday, April 13.
EnFusion is a multicultural dance group on campus that performs a wide variety of styles and genres of dance, ranging from Afro-Caribbean to hip-hop,” said Ashley Gonzalez.
Gonzalez is a junior social work major with a minor in dance studio administration as well as the vice president of EnFusion.
Battle of the SUNYs is a dance and step competition where teams from various SUNY schools come and compete for the title of “Best SUNY dance/step group” as well as a cash prize.
The idea came from the team’s previous trip to compete at SUNY Brockport.
“We absolutely loved being able to meet other dance and step teams from the western New York area,” said Gonzalez. “We learned so much from other groups and got valuable feedback on what we, as a group, could work on to be even better.”
The team became creatively inspired and wanted to give other dance teams an experience like they had.
Battle of the SUNYs will include 12 different dance teams and over 150 dancers.
Among those participating are teams from Buffalo State College, University at Buffalo, SUNY Geneseo, Alfred State, SUNY Potsdam and SUNY Cortland.
EnFusion also extended the invitation to several dance groups on campus.
“We actually invited our step team, Blue Ice, and hip-hop team, Envied Xpression, to compete,” said Gonzalez. “We also stumbled upon a newly forming K-pop group on campus called Reiwa who will be competing as well.”
Each team will perform an original routine to be judged by the panel featuring Khristian King, EnFusion’s group advisor.
The competition will also feature live music from DJ Ziggy as well as a performance by EnFusion during intermission.
EnFusion hopes that this friendly competition will turn into an annual event, bringing other SUNY groups together to learn and grow with each other’s help.
Battle of the SUNYs will be held in Steel Hall at 6 p.m.
Tickets are now on sale, $5 for non-students and $3 for students with a valid FREDcard.
For more information on the event, follow EnFusion on Instagram @enfusiondance.