Dean Ritter speaks to Diego Lopez (BFA '24) at Open Floor | Photo by Eileen Kim

On August 23rd, the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance hosted Open Floor, an annual involvement fair for dance clubs. This is the fair’s first year back since the pandemic, and over 600 students came to learn about 16 different dance clubs. USC Kaufman got an In and Out truck and a DJ, and students mingled and ate as they perused the many tables. USC Kaufman Student Services attended as well, giving out information about dance minors offered at USC Kaufman.

The USC Dance Community

Started as an Instagram page and now a formal entity housed under Student Services at USC Kaufman, the USC Dance Community’s goal is to connect dancers at USC. This initiative is spearheaded by Diego Lopez (BFA ‘24) and Kyle Beasley, Admission and Student Services Officer in charge of dance minors and elective students.

Lopez acts as a liaison between USC Kaufman and the rest of the clubs. He has set up a meeting to which all the dance clubs can send representatives. They will have a community wide discussion about future events and the mission of this new entity. Lopez hopes to better connect Kaufman with the existing dance club scene. He said Dean Ritter is on board and is very open to conversation.

“Kaufman can be a little closed off. With this new dean, we hope to open up the spaces,” Lopez said. “At the end of the day, the dance community at USC is much bigger than Kaufman. We’re less than 100. Chaotic 3 alone has 50 people. Dance Off has over 100.”

Leaders of dance clubs are excited about what this more formal connection can bring to the community. USC Kaufman has a lot of resources that can be extremely beneficial in supporting dance clubs and fostering collaboration.

“I am most looking forward to all the performances and events that all the dance orgs will be putting together,” Hanah Abualhaj, co-director of Breakthrough Hip Hop, said. “With a more centralized community, I’m hoping it’ll foster more connectivity and collaboration. Kaufman also has so many resources that we can learn from.”

Open Floor

At a university as large as USC, there are hundreds of clubs to look through when trying to find the right fit for you. Open Floor allows students interested in dance to find organizations more easily, giving new students a peek into the diverse dance community at USC.

“The general involvement fair can sometimes be overwhelming with the amount of clubs present,” Abualhaj said. “Having a dance-focused event made it very easy to streamline information to a more targeted group of students.”

Below is a list of the 16 dance clubs who attended the fair, along with the style they practice. Click through to learn more about each of them.

• Adaa (Classical Indian)
• Ballroom and Latin Dance at USC (Ballroom)
• Break Through Hip Hop (Hip Hop)
• Chaotic Three (Hip Hop)
• KASA Dance Off (Various)
• NSQK (Hip Hop)
• SC Irish Dance Club (Irish)
• Soul Cal Breaking (Breaking)
• Spade A Dance (K-Pop)
• Tap SC (Tap)
• Trojan Dance Force (Various)
• Trojan Tap Project (Tap)
• USC Break on 2 Latin Fusion Dance Team (Latin Fusion)
• USC Chamber Ballet Company (Ballet)
• USC Zeher (Bollywood Fusion)
• Xpressions Dance Company (Various)

For more information about the USC Dance Community, follow them on Instagram and check out the Open Floor Linktree.

By Hannah Doerr