Scarborough Swagg will once again represent the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus on stage for a post-secondary hip-hop dance competition on March 30.
The competition known as BYOB (Bring your own beat) features students from various universities competing and showcasing their talents.
Sc Swagg will be competing with only six of its members but still hope to make their mark.
“Our mindset is to win but winning is not the priority in our hearts — winning is always a bonus,” dancer Kevin Ho, 20, says. “We feel like as long as we get the message across to the audience and we leave our hearts on the stage that’s all that matters.”
Ho has been a member of the team since last summer. Though he is not a student at the campus, his dedication and admiration for the team motivated him to stay involved. BYOB has allowed two members of each team to participate within a school without attending the university.
“We’re a very eccentric group,” Ho says. “We have people that have ballet background to someone like myself where I came from no dancing background and relied on Youtube for inspiration.”
Sc Swagg has been performing on stages both on and off campus since 2008, drawing attention to the university’s eastern suburban campus.
“I think most people know University of Toronto as that one [sole] campus downtown,” dancer Megan MacDonald, 20, says. “They don’t really realize that there are all these other groups of people that are involved in different campuses.”
As a Sc Swagg member, MacDonald emphasizes on the importance of school spirit and how this brings about unity within the community.
“I just want people to know Scarborough and be like ‘oh yeah they’re really awesome’” MacDonald said. “I think we do have a lot of people that support us. And it’s been really good to see [the support]. It makes us feel good that we know people in the audience that are cheering for us.”
