James Ellis III - 03/23/99 06:25:30
My URL:http://www.wam.umd.edu/~ellisj
My Email:ellisj@wam.umd.edu
| Comments:
My name's James Ellis III and I'm a sophomore, African-American Studies
major, at the University of Maryland. However, currently I'm taking
classes this semester at Charles County Community College. My friend and
I have started our own strictly dancehall dance group called "Serious
Styles". We recently performed at our CSA's (Caribbean Student
Association) annual Carifest at UM. We performed in front of about 400
people and bruk it up! We want to bring true dancehall reggae vibes to
our performances and make sure that the crowd gets hype when we perform.
"Serious Styles" thinks that we can blow up DC Carnival with our
explosive moves and images. We bring to the stage, everything that truly
is represented at parties of a Caribbean persuasion; gun battles,
challenges, 'real' whine, and much, much more. In due time, we'd like to
go on Showtime at the Apollo and show our skillz.
If anyone is interested in being down with "Serious Styles", please link
up wit me. We'd also like to establish a consortium of local Caribbean
organizations and stuff. For example, last semester I linked up with
American University's Caribbean organization and so we represented at
one of their party's and it was off tha hook. It lasted 'til like 4AM
and we had big fun. I think that it would be nice if we could start to
link up and network with each other. This way, we're start to build
families and just represent at all the Caribbean events and force to
people to recognize it, ya know? I want to build an environment where
the Caribbean cultures are all connected. I stay on campus during the
summers, so I'll try to build that then I guess.
For example, I think we should all get to the point where we have peeps
everywhere (UDC, UM, HU, GU, GWU, AU, etc….as well as peeps in NY, GA,
CA….and everywhere) and when there are dancehall/reggae events we all
hook up in some way or another and represent as a big-ass group and just
get down, ya know? Hopefully "Serious Styles" will be able to help
foster that. I started it because I figured that my friend and I can't
be the only reggae fans out there that are tired of going to parties and
seeing the sistas trying to profile (in-some wanna-be dancehall queen
outfits) on the side of the wall and not even dancing….and the brothas
just following the women around like little pets, not even hearing the
much….smokin' and drinkin'. When Serious Styles goes to a show "it's
on", literally. We're dancing from show-start to show-end. That's just
how we do and when we get crazy everyone will know because we're whinin'
down to the floor and battlin' each other and basically….having fun!, ya
know?
Also, if anyone has any insight as far as summer carnivals go (DC and
NYC Carnival), please link up wit me.
Much Love & Respect,
That Real Brotha (James Ellis III)
http://www.wam.umd.edu/~ellisj
5086 Bluehead Court
Waldorf, MD 20603
(301) 893-1795
http://www.wam.umd.edu/~ellisj
|
