Hip-Hop Dance Group And What!?!? Gets Down

by Christina Morgan
3/2/01
Since its emergence some 20 years ago, hip-hop has often served as a form of expression for people searching for a creative outlet unique to their community. Oberlin’s first and only hip-hop dance group, And What!?!?, continued this tradition when it was created out of student desire to express themselves in a form not offered through an existing Oberlin medium. 
“I started And What!?!? because there wasn’t a hip-hop dance group on campus, and I enjoyed doing it. And if there isn’t one, you can’t complain without proposing a solution,” junior founder and choreographer Ni’Ja Whitson said. And What!?!? also grew out of student frustration with the Oberlin College dance department. “I couldn’t take the classes I wanted, such as jazz or West African dance,” Whitson, who is currently a dance minor, said. “Not everyone wants to just do modern and ballet.”
Junior Lauren Katzman expressed similar dissatisfaction with Oberlin’s dance opportunities. “I heard that Ni’Ja was going to start a hip-hop dance group on this campus, and I had been discouraged with the dance department at Oberlin, so I got in touch with Ni’Ja and helped her organize the group,” she said. Whitson conceived the idea for And What!?!? in the fall of 1999. Tryouts were held in October, with roughly 15 participants, and only seven made the cut. The group first performed at the end of a men’s basketball game that same year.
Since its inception in 1999, And What!?!? has grown immensely. When the group held tryouts this year in mid-February, 22 people participated, with just four making the cut. And What!?!? now has a total of 18 members and has performed at Fall Forward, Spring Back and Colors of Rhythm dance concerts. The group will give its first major solo performance in Wilder Main the weekend of this month’s Hip-Hop Conference. And What!?!? is a completely independent, student-run group. According to Whitson, this has both positives and negatives. “We can run the group the way we want and don’t have to deal with Oberlin bureaucracy and red tape,” she said.
However, the group receives no funding or sponsorship from the Oberlin College dance department. According to Whitson, the first and only dance department professor to aid the group was Ann Cooper Albright, who gave And What!?!? production credit within the department. 
The group also received help from lecturer of African American studies Adenike Sharpley, who does much work within the dance department, but has not been recognized as a professor. “We’ve learned to work on no money, but we’d rather keep it the way it is,” Whitson said. 
Despite this lack of recognition within the dance department, the members of And What!?!? are highly dedicated to their project. “I enjoy dancing, but my high school wasn’t as diverse as I’d like it to be, so once I got here, and saw what opportunities were open to me, I decided to take them,” junior Alana Bailey said. 
And What!?!? has recently increased their weekly practice time from seven to nine hours a week in preparation for the Hip-Hop Conference. The devoted dancers don’t seem to mind. “Oh I love it, it’s the bomb!” first-year Karla Victum said. “I can’t put things into words so I enjoy expressing myself through dance.”