Audition Information
Introduction
The Urban Company was founded in September 2000. The company has performed at the American College Dance Festival (ACDF) and our ACDF 2005 entry mixing Hip Hop with Modern Dance was selected for the Gala and given the honor of closing the show. The company has a creative focus and often performs in hybrid pieces with dancers from the other company. The company won the Ontario Universities Competition for Hip Hop (OUCH) 2004. It also contributed several dancers to the Mac 2006-2009 OUCH winning teams (see You tube videos). In 2008-2009 the company received Judges Choreographic Awards at both Ontario University dance competitions, Terpsichore-Guelph (from 47 entries) and Rhythm-Brantford (from 121 entries). Past dancer Jordan Settaci had a dance role in the urban film 'Honey'. Markwell Ottolino-Perry was cast in 'Dawn of the Dead' and recently toured Europe as a dancer. Choreographer/teacher Mike Rhodes has danced for Janet Jackson and Lady Gaga. Other guest teachers/choreographers have included Jeff Reyes, Apolonia Velasquez, David Norsworthy, Michelle Daniel, Miss Prissy, Blaze, Lenny Len. The company will carry 12-14 dancers.
Current Dancers
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Kelsey Allen - Urban Student Director and Administrative CoordinatorHometown: Chatham, Ontario Kelsey has been dancing for essentially her entire life. She moved around quite a bit in her childhood, and as a result, learned from a wide variety of instructors. At the age of 12, she began competing in jazz and lyrical at various competitions across Ontario. During her final year of high school, Kelsey won first place in two different competitions for her lyrical solos, and was the highest scoring soloist in the professional category at the Let’s Get Loud competition in Niagara Falls. Her passion for hip hop, however, is relatively new. She developed a love for the style when she began taking classes at Erin’s Dance Club in Blenheim in 2009. Kelsey has also had experience as the assistant coach and choreographer of the competitive team at Alexandria’s Dance Studio in Chatham. |
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Namita Deodhare Hometown: Mississauga, Ontario Namita Deodhare has been training in Kathak, an Indian classical dance, since the age of four. At the age of 15 she decided to start exploring other styles of dance such as hip-hop. She started her journey as a company dancer at Mississauga School Dance with Natalie Nesterenko and it is now her third year learning hip-hop. So far, she has been exposed to styles such as, house, waacking, tutting, old school and new style hip-hop. She recently got the opportunity to compete at World of Dance Toronto as a part of Faction Crew led by Natalie Nesterenko and Mariano Abarca. Being part of the McMaster Urban Dance Company is a great opportunity for Namita to strengthen her hip-hop skills. She loves her team and is more than happy that she was able to find a dance platform away from home. |
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Natalie GentileHometown: Etobicoke, Ontario Natalie Gentile was first introduced to dance through her music career at Kingsway conservatory; she was then enrolled in dance classes. Natalie was quickly intrigued by hip-hop out of all the other styles of dance. She then enrolled herself at an Urban studio called DLM (Dance Like Me) in Toronto. Throughout her time dancing at DLM one of her choreographers wanted to start a dance crew called The Executives. The Executives performed, and competed on multiple occasions, after 2 years of being in The Executives Natalie wanted to be challenged after finding a comfort with the her dance crew. The then enrolled at OIP a well known dance studio in Toronto. After a year of intense training at OIP studio she had finished her high school career and had accepted her offer at Mcmaster University. A year went by without being involved in a dance studio and Natalie Gentile decided to audition for the Mcmaster Dance Company, and is a choreographer with the Mcmaster Dance Club. Natalie hopes to challenge her self with the Mcmaster Dance Company and hopes to improver her abilities and broaden her dance background. |
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Shreemona Grg Hometown: Hornepayne, Ontario Shreemona was first introduced to Hip-hop through a local performing arts summer camp when she was 13 years old. For the next two summer she continued to participate in the summer program. After relocating to a small town up north, her exposure to dance came to a sudden halt. When she joined McMaster to further her academic studies, she was once again reunited with her love for dance. Although she has never trained professionally as a dancer, she has always found dancing to be very intriguing. She hopes to progress as a dancer and challenged as a person by joining the McMaster dance company. |
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Torri HarrisHometown: Mississauga, Ontario Torri has been dancing since she was two years old. She started her training at Canadian Dance Company and continued the rest of her training at Sean Boutilier Acadamy of Dance Mississauga. She is classically trained in ballet, tap, jazz, hip-hop, and lyrical. Torri started competing at the age of 10 and fell in love with both tap and hip-hop instantly. She has competed at various dance competitions such as Flashdance, Hall of Fame, Terpsichore, and CanDance. Torri is excited to continue her dance journey at McMaster and evolve as a well rounded dancer. |
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Aiden (Ranke) LiuHometown: Scarborough, Ontario Aiden first started dancing in 2011. Dance made him realize the value of “going all out” and being challenged is an opportunity to grow. Within this short period of time, Aiden hse been training intensively in Hip Hop and its many styles including popping, waving, house, and choreography. Aiden was able to become a dance instructor here at McMaster’s David Braley Athletic Center in May of 2012, spreading his love and passion for dance to the McMaster community. One thing he loves the most about dance is the community it is built upon and the opportunity to learn from everybody, because no two person will dance the same way. Aiden has a wide range of styles ranging from smooth R&B to hard hitting Hip Hop. Whatever the style is, his goal is to visualize the sentiment he associates with the music. |
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Fareh Malik Hometown: Whitby, Ontario Fareh Malik started dancing at the age of 15. Spending the majority of his time going between NY and Toronto, he dived into the hip-hop culture and embraced the four elements. Him and his friends used to freestyle at parties, battle other crews, and each day he used to practice tutting, popping and waving in front of a narrow mirror. In grade 10, Fareh joined the dance company at his high school, SDC. Spending years with the team starting from rookie to team captain in grade 12, to choreographing his own intricate choreography for workshops, classes and pieces. Him and his friends even got their crew affiliated with competitions such as WOD, TBHSDC, and STOMP. I guess you could say he has sort of been everywhere, from the street to the stage. Fareh says his only wish is that he can continue dancing and keep on improving on his abilities under the guidance of MDC and his awesome superiors. |
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David OshanaHometown: Mississauga, Ontario David Oh has only been dancing for 5 years total now, but he will not be stopping anytime soon. Starting off, David Oh was self taught all of these years and this opportunity is his first to dance in a group of people. However, David Oh did not falter too much at the task as his learning came strictly through the dances of K-pop. His main influences from the beginning were TVXQ!, Shinee, Infinite and many other highly skilled and talented idol groups from South Korea. His ultimate dream and venture has always been to entertain in some way and still hopes to one day bring his passions to Asia as a way of thanking them for his abilities as no one else taught him. On that note, David has also been through many Company auditions competing against hundreds of others for a chance to get signed. To his surprise, he was able to gain attention and earn a scholarship to a training academy from Korea. David's main focus in dancing is to extenuate the beauty of slow and smooth hip hop, truly trying to blend precision and perfection into one artistic form. Although he may not be your typical urban-style dancer, he is sure to work just as hard to learn the steps and allow the dance to shine. |
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Julia Plummer Hometown: Richmond Hill, Ontario Julia was enrolled into a few introductory dance classes when she was 5 and 7 but had no interest in pursuing the art form until age 9 when she discovered YouTube and became inspired by other young talents. At age 12, she was enrolled in her first recreational hip hop class at Soul in Motion Dance Arts Academy and grew fond of it very quickly. The next year more genres of dance were added to her training repertoire in order to prepare her for the competition team the following year. Since then, Julia has competed and trained in a variety of dance styles but hip hop has remained her favourite. Some of her favourite urban dancers who have inspired her most include her past teacher Melissa McDermott, Ysabelle Capitule, Ian Eastwood, Simrin Player, Janelle Ginestra, Bobby Newberry, Willdabeast, and more. |
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Chandler Teneycke Hometown: Cambridge, Ontario Chandler graduated from In.Motion School of preforming Arts in 2012. She has been dancing since the age of 8 training in numerous styles such as jazz, tap, ballet, hip hop, lyrical, musical theatre, and acro. Chandler has travelled to LA and many places around Ontario to train and take workshops from professional choreographers including Tucker Barkley, Hollywood, Shavar Blackwood, Leon Blackwood, Anthony Smith, and Blake McGraph (to name a few!) Chandler won a scholarship to the summer intensive 'get exposed' at the On Fire high school dance competition. she has also been involved with dance crews including JU-C dance crew, where they preformed around the Cambridge and Kitchener Waterloo area. Chandler began choreographing competitive routines at the age of 16. She started exploring her teaching career and is teaching at studios throughout the Cambridge and Kitchener Waterloo area. Chandler has choreographed a hiphop piece for the Waterloo dance team, where they competed against other universities around Ontario. She is currently studying Early childhood Education at Mohawk College, and is in her 2nd year. Chandler is proud and excited to be apart of this seasons McMaster dance company. |
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Stephanie Williams Hometown: Port Elgin, Ontario Stephanie started dancing before she could walk, and always wanted to be on a stage under the spotlight. She has been taking classical ballet training since she was 4, and began pointe, jazz and tap during elementary school. It wasn’t until high school that she was introduced to lyrical and contemporary as well as a competitive level of dance. She has always had an interest in urban styles and integrating them with contemporary movement in fusion pieces. She didn’t lose her love of the stage coming to university, participating and choreographing in the McMaster Dance Club, taking DBAC classes in swing and belly dance, as well as taking ballet classes in Dundas. Last year was her first year with the McMaster Dance Company and enjoyed it immensely as she grew as an athlete and as an artist. She choreographed for the company last year and looks forward to challenging herself with different movement through new artistic ideas this year. She is excited to build on the urban foundations she developed last year in the company and push herself to embody the urban style and culture to enrich her dancing. In addition to dance, Stephanie has a passion for music including playing piano and saxophone, painting and photography. Art is Stephanie’s outlet; she is very interested in self-expression through different dance styles and looks forward to experimentation with new genres to develop as an artist. |