HYPE Dance: The Road to a 20-Year Anniversary

Students listen and watch intently on the dancer in front of them as they learn and practice choreography. Sweat drips off everyone’s foreheads after a long practice packed tight of dancing yet smiles still shine on everyone’s faces as the team circles up at the end of practice to scream “HYPE-U-DUB” before they leave for the night.

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s urban hip-hop dance company HYPE Dance is celebrating a 20-year anniversary under new leadership. Mara Garran and Maya Lusis had both been on the team for five years and become directors during their second and third year respectively. Now they have decided to step down and pass the role onto R’Mariana Cade, a junior at UWM.

“In the past five years, I’ve grown as a dancer, gained confidence in myself and my emotions and met some amazing people along the way,” Lusis said. “Being a director taught me responsibility and gave me purpose that I will take with me for the rest of my life. Leaving HYPE marks the end of an era but marks a new chapter going forward, and I am so excited to see where this team goes, and the amazing things they’ll continue to do!”

“Joining this team was the best thing that happened to me in college (and post college),” said Garran on this Instagram post. “I have loved every second of being on this team and watching myself and my teammates grow as dancers and people.”

HYPE Dance has been around ever since Jason Cunningham, owner of Pufferfish Tiki Bar started the program at Marquette University in 2001. He and his co-founder, Kris Riley, saw that UWM had a great arts community and wanted to be a part of it, so they decided to start Hype UWM in 2004. The two programs decided to co-exist and have collaborated for their showcases ever since.

“The HYPE UWM program was a labor of love,” Cunningham said. “In the fourth season of HYPE, we passed out flyers for audition. We were lucky enough that people showed up. We had those students apply for it to become a club sport, and with help from the dance department we became official.”

Many dance companies have all originated from HYPE’s community, such as the all-girls group Krush and World of Dance Chicago winners the SAINTS. Many HYPE alumni then come back to teach choreography for free for the current members. Garran and Lusis still dance now on Krush.

“When we formed HYPE, we were never trying to be a competition crew,” Cunningham said. “We had the ability to lay some foundations down for those types of groups. We were just trying to provide a safe space for people to perform their art. It’s a celebration of art in Milwaukee, and now Wisconsin as a whole.”

When the COVID-19 pandemic first began, HYPE went through many struggles. A lot of teams and programs decided to stop meeting, but Garran and Lusis decided to keep the program moving.

“People would zoom in from dorm rooms and apartments to learn choreography,” Cunningham said. “It could have been the end for HYPE, but the program got stronger because once we got out of the pandemic, we were able to get a real dance studio, with a real floor and mirrors. To be able to see this expand from dancing in a hallway to a studio was a neat thing.”

Now, HYPE moves on to a 20-year anniversary under Cade. The transition between leadership wasn’t particularly smooth. After around 30 people showed up for auditions last year, only nine auditionees showed up. For the first time in HYPE history, all auditionees were selected as part of the team. With the previous 12 members who decided to stay, the team size was at a comfortable 22. But a student’s life is never simple, and school began to interfere with people’s lives, dwindling the team size to just 17 people.

The season was off to a rough start, but Cade had confidence that the team would be able to pull everything together. A brief mid-semester check-in touched on how the team was feeling regarding the leadership transitions.

“I feel a lot less stressed than last year for some reason, but I want to be called out individually when I mess up,” said Haley Berliant, a student at UWM. “I would rather be embarrassed here than on stage.”

“One improvement I’d like is to see more interesting formations,” said Mackenzie Swan, a freshman at UWM.

Cade took note of this, and the semester continued with the suggestions from the team. They continued learning choreography and “cleaning” their dances. Yet the deadlines of their showcases were beginning to creep up. Since many HYPE alumni all frequent the showcases, Cade knew there was a lot of pressure to show that things were still going well. She remained confident in the team and was proud to see her team challenging and pushing themselves for their first showcase on Nov. 18 at Varsity Theater in Marquette University.

“I was active and on the floor at both programs in some capacity, in UWM specifically for 16 years,” said Cunningham. “I’d show up twice a week every week, with whatever they needed. I started getting older, got married, bought a house and started my own bar. Having the performance arts in my life was hard. For HYPE to still be going even though I’ve taken a step back has brought me a lot of joy. To see what we’re able to do as a city and as a community was awesome. This little thing that we did with nine students has turned into the oldest urban arts company in Milwaukee to never take a day off and continue to provide people w opportunities to perform. To be able to be a platform for so many people is just wonderful.”

HYPE Dance’s last show for the fall will take place on Dec. 2 in the UWM Union Ballrooms at 7 p.m.