Faster, RB! Kill! Kill!

The Rhythmic Blue crew can dance, and their fall show, Shake It Fast, proves it. The performance is energetic, tight, and creative, and the dancers show a whole lot of talent through their complex choreography and difficult moves. A fast-paced hour and a half (with intermission), Shake It Fast is a show worth seeing.

DAVID GEST/YH Rhythmic Blue shakes all sorts of thangs.

The 14 numbers vary in choice of music and style of choreography, though most stay close to standard high-action hip-hop routines. Those that stray from loud, strong beats are a little weaker, but numbers like "Latinos," with its engaging salsa dancing and bright costumes, will bou-nce more than a few heads. Some dances display great creativity: in "Weekend Perversion," a girl sits over a reclining guy so that his legs appear to be hers, and the two then move flawlessly in unison. At another point in the routine, RB members in the audience set off camera flashes, which contribute both a compelling audio and visual effects. "It's Love" begins with a dance class milling about the stage; then, with a perfectly timed shout of "Let's go," the girls burst into motion as the music kicks in, and a very impressive display of tap dancing ensues. Good tap can't be faked—if one person is off, the whole audience can hear—and the RB tap dancers are tight. The routine swings from loud to quiet, and every movement is clean, crisp, and coherent.

The whole show is well produced: despite the less-than-inspirational venue of the Morse dining hall, Rhythmic Blue puts on a professional show. The acoustics aren't great and the lighting system is bare bones, yet the show moves beyond its surroundings through strong, exciting dancing. Bolstered by the fun, well-chosen costumes and music, the dancers' energy is infectious and gives the show life and attitude.

Dance

Shake It Fast by Rhythmic Blue Fri.-Sat., Nov. 10-11 9:30 p.m. Morse College dining hall $4 advance, $5 door

Rhythmic Blue's bread and butter are the hip-hop dance moves of today's music videos. The choreography, however, goes beyond simple mock-kickboxing into well-executed lifts, somersaults, and slides. One piece, "La Cura," experiments with more ballet-oriented moves and interesting moments of balance. The dancers in "You Can't Stop Me" gyrate with a robotic, mechanical motion that is set perfectly to the music. Some dances follow the content of the music—there are even a few moments of lip-synching—while others, like "Que Gina Ching Ching," by Asian rap superstars 1TYM, are good old-fashioned, bouncy, break-dance-styled routines.

This show is fun, energetic, and relentlessly sexy to boot. The exciting kicks, punches, swings, and slides are all timed well and bear the mark of unrelenting practice, and the choreography shows creativity as well as mastery of the hip-hop form. Shake It Fast does indeed shake it fast.

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