UA student group to dance on TV

With music blaring, feet stomping and hair flying, UA's hip-hop dance team, Riptide, practiced Monday night in Tuscaloosa before embarking on a 16-hour drive to New York City.

Tonight, the Riptide Dance Team will make their television debut on the BET show "Wild Out Wednesday," which will air at 5 p.m.

"We are extremely excited and extremely nervous," said Christina Webber, a senior majoring in management information systems and the Riptide captain. "We are just praying we do a really good job and represent Alabama well. Regardless of whether we win or not, it's just such an honor to be able to have this opportunity.

"I'm actually graduating in May, and I'm the one that put this group together, so it's really an honor for me, because I get to experience this before I graduate."

"Wild Out Wednesday" is a variety-type reality show featuring rappers, dancers and singers competing against other groups or individuals in their respective categories.

The Riptide dancers will compete against two other dance teams at the beginning of the show and will continue on to the second round if they are voted by the viewers to be one of the top two teams. Viewers can vote online at the BET Web site.

Winners of the first round will go on to compete again during the show, requiring viewers to vote again to determine the overall winner.

Andrea David, a Riptide dancer and a sophomore majoring in childhood development, said students should not only tune in to watch them perform, but should also vote to help get the UA group through to the next round.

"I think we deserve it," David said. "We work just as hard as some of the other teams we are competing against, so I encourage everybody to watch and support us. Plus, we are an actual University organization, so we are out there to not only represent our team, but to also represent the University as a whole."

The Riptide Dance Team was formed in 2005 by Webber, who was looking for a dance outlet that didn't require technical training.

"I know of a lot of females like myself who don't really have technical dance experience but love to dance," Webber said. "So I just figured this team would be a great way to get those girls involved and to just feel like they had another outlet besides Crimson Cabaret to come and express themselves."

Like Webber, David said she was also looking for a way to be involved in dance.

"Throughout high school, I was on a hip-hop team," Webber said. "So when I came here and decided not to be a dance major, I obviously still wanted to be involved in something. My friend had been on the dance team the year before me and was like, 'Do it, it's so much fun. It's really laid back.' So I said, 'OK, what the heck?' And I tried out and have been doing it ever since."

David said she has really enjoyed staying involved with dance and meeting everyone on the team.

"It's just fun," she said. "The girls are all so fun and just different. Hip-hop is one of those things where you never have to be too technical - you can always just go in there and know that whatever you do is going to be fun and high-energy. It's not something like, 'Oh my gosh, I've got to go practice.' It's something that's exciting and that we enjoy."

"Wild Out Wednesday" will mark not only the group's television debut, but also their first competition. But they have also performed in a number of on- and off-campus events, including the Hip-Hop Summit, Corolla Pageant, UA volleyball games and even the Tiger Stomp in Auburn.

Since the group's formation, one of the Riptide dancers' goals has been performing on "Wild Out Wednesday." They were offered a spot to perform on another BET show in December, but they could not raise the necessary funds to attend.

Plans to perform on "Wild Out Wednesday" were recently finalized, and the team has been practicing nearly every day since.

"We just decided maybe a month ago that we were doing this, so we have worked our tails off," David said. "I know there are a lot of seniors on the team, and this is their last year, and it's really special for them to be able to do this."

Allison Barnes, a senior majoring in public relations and the group's co-captain, said UA students should tune in for the opportunity to learn more about other UA students.

"I think it would be fun to see students you walk to class with every day on a nationally syndicated television show, showing what they do behind closed doors and outside of school," she said. "Most of the black community at Alabama knows who Riptide is, but I don't think everyone does. I think it would be really interesting to say, 'Hey that girl is in my class, and she is on TV.'"