When you first hear the name World of Dance, it immediately makes you think of the show “World of Dance,” which is shown on NBC. But that is not the case for this Chaminade club. The World of Dance Club (WODC) became official on Jan. 16 of the spring semester, and the club consists of multiple styles of dance that includes hip-hop, ballet, hula, Tahitian, jazz and many others. Currently, the club consist of five officers and has about three members.

“We wanted to introduce this to the student body, like different styles and different cultures,” said World of Dance president Kara Grace Joves, a third-year Forensic Science major from California. “That’s why we’re call World of Dance. It’s because we want to bring the world to everyone.”

During the month of October, on each Thursday, the club offered dance classes from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., and each of the officers were in charge of a week. Each of the officers taught a specific dance that would be in their field of dance and then presented their dance over Zoom. Fourth-year student Melissa “Ezzie” Dela Cruz chose to teach a hip-hop dance that she created.

“So in order for me to prepare to teach my class, I took about a week to figure out what dance I wanted,” said Dela Cruz, the secretary for the World of Dance Club. “I practiced it to make sure that I got it down, in order for me to teach it. Then I taught it to a friend first just to see how it would be for a beginner, and if there is any trouble with the choreography, I would be able to adjust and modify it to make it simpler. Then on the day of the class, I would teach it again step by step and who ever participated, gave me feedback after the class.”

Though the club has hip-hop and traditional dancers, it is open to other types of dances like contemporary and belly dancing, just to name a few.

“Another vision we had for the club, if someone saw that their culture wasn’t represented or wanted to see people try their style of dance … or introduce their culture, that’s where we come in,” Joves said.

The club has not only taught their styles of dance, but have also connected with different clubs around campus to teach cultural dances. One of the clubs that they connected with was The Filipino Club.

“I was offering the idea if people wanted to learn the tinikling or Filipino dances, we have a former officer from The Filipino Club in the WODC,” Joves said. “And The Filipino Club actually had contacted up asking if they could help them teach tinikling or a dance to a Filipino song.”

The World of Dance Club will be planing events over the winter break. To get updates on future activities and events, follow the club’s Instagram at chaminade_wod or email the club at [email protected].