Captivated by breathtaking flips and awe-inspiring headspins, the crowd roars. Breakerz Club’s mesmerizing rhythm and intricate choreography of the dance brings the crowd to their feet. While Breakerz Club used to perform these incredible tricks, Dance Club teaches the important basics of dancing that leads up to them.

Breakerz, a breakdancing club, was passed down to seniors and Dance Clubco-presidents Gabrielle Garcia and Vivian Hung last year. However, they decided to go a different route and create Piedmont Dance Club instead.

“We wanted to create our own identity,” Garcia said. “We focus on the fundamentals of dancing and the choreography instead of cool tricks.”

Mastering the basics provides the foundation for advanced dancing techniques, Garcia said.

“In math, you need to learn how to add and subtract before moving on to more difficult problems,” Garcia said. “It’s the same with dance, you need to learn the basics in order to put it all together.”

Garcia and Hung’s goal is to create a bigger dancing culture at PHS, Hung said.

“The dance community in Piedmont is very small,” Hung said. “We want to broaden this community and show people that dancing is an art.”

While Breakers focused on breakdancing, Dance Club hones in on hip-hop and urban dance.

“Hip-hop consists of a lot of rap music, like Drake,” Garcia said. “Urban is more pop music, like Billie Eilish.”

Garcia’s favorite style of dance is hip-hop because of the beats and the “facials.”

“Facials are facial expressions that you make while you dance,” Garcia said. “It keeps the audience intrigued and it helps tell a story.”

Former Breaker and current Dance Club member junior Charlotte Lichens said that she has enjoyed the transition from breakdancing to hip-hop and urban dancing.

“Hip-hop dancing is a lot of fun because you get to learn popular dances,” Lichens said. “At the same time, I’m glad I learned how to breakdance because it’s important to have diverse dancing skills.”

On top of teaching the basics, another priority of Dance Club is to perform. Club members are currently working on a performance for the spring rally and will look for additional opportunities afterward.

“We are working on an exciting set for the spring rally,” Garcia said. “[Preparing our performance] involves choreographing, creating formations, and mixing music.”

Garcia and Hung have learned how to create choreography and sets from their time in a different dance organization. They both dance at UC Berkeley with an urban dance group called AFX. Within the organization, there are 10 teams of 50 people that work together to train and compete.

“In addition to learning new skills, AFX has taught me how to work with many different kinds of people,” Garcia said. “Your team really comes together as a unit and you become a community.”

Garcia used to danced at New Style Motherlode (NSM), a dance studio in Oakland.

“Dancing at NSM helped me become a leader,” Garcia said. “I was one of the oldest kids there, and I had to mentor the younger kids, many of whom were beginners.”

The skills Garcia has learned from AFX and NSM have helped her teach beginners in Dance Club, Garcia said.

“At first, people are intimidated by dancing, and it can be scary,” Garcia said. “I’ve been through the process of learning to dance, so I know how to ease people into it.”

Dancing has become Garcia and Hung’s passion, and they want others to experience the joy it gives them, Hung said.

“Dancing is a great outlet for people to express themselves,” Hung said. “It’s also an important life skill.”

Whether it’s at a party, a school dance, or in a spontaneous dance-off, knowing how to dance is important, Garcia said.

“We want to give everyone the basic skills to dance,” Garcia said. “We only have six official members, so non-members are invited to attend our meetings as well.”

The club meets every Wednesday and Friday in the dance studio during lunch. Any student interested in dance is encouraged to drop in.