Dance has played a large role in Sophie Kairalla’s life. Kairalla is a second-year marketing and graphic design student at Point Loma Nazarene University and has danced competitively for 12 years, until she graduated high school. Since fall of 2020, Kairalla has been looking for a dance outlet on PLNU’s campus. Due to students being sent home earlier in 2020 and COVID-19 and regulations surrounding it, the former Loma Dance Club, “Breakerz” decided to no longer hold regular meetings.
“Ever since I have been trying to work and find or create a space to have the outlet again,” Kairalla said.
After a year and a half of waiting, Kairalla and Chiara Curnow, a second-year biology major, decided to put this into their own hands and the two students took up the responsibility of leading the new Loma Dance Club. This updated club will hold meetings once a week, Thursday nights at 7 p.m. for all dancers, with any or no experience at all. The meetings will be held in Kinesiology Room 2. Each club session will teach students in attendance a new combination to see what dance classes are like.
“Chiara and I are really looking forward to providing any opportunities that dancers may be looking for,” Kairalla said. “I hope students and dancers can have a space to express themselves and find as much joy through dancing as I do.”
Although Breakerz no longer meets, their budget and the original club remained a part of ASB. The budget that was allotted to Breakerz was given to Loma Dance Club to use, Kaitlyn Harris, ASB Director of Student Relations said.
“When students got sent home during 2020 it was really difficult to continue the dance club [Breakerz] since not many people went to the virtual zoom dance classes that we had,” Jasmyne Kon, a third-year nursing major and a former member of the Breakerz said.
According to Kon, the original members graduated early or had busy school and work schedules, making it difficult to continue the club and team.
“That being said, previous students prior to COVID-19 really enjoyed coming to the dance club, especially freshmen and sophomores,” Kon said.
The previous dance club was also a dance team, where members practiced routines in the kinesiology building every week, which were then performed at PLNU’s basketball at halftime, Kon said.
“We would love to expand into doing a team as well if there are dancers interested, and staying open to the options of going into San Diego and taking classes from outside choreographers, or attending shows here [in San Diego],” Kairalla said.
Although the new Loma Dance Club has no scheduled performances yet, they hope to get the club running a little bit more and see the type of involvement and turnout at their first couple meetings, Kairalla said.
“I want students to know that they are welcome and encouraged to come to try even if they have never danced,” Kairalla said. “We want it to be a club where students feel like they have an input on what we do or what direction we take based on what everyone is looking for. Hopefully, this can be the start of something that will be really valuable to dancers looking for that outlet at Point Loma.”
Written By: Becky Rookard
Steve Anderson