Photo: Polina Belehhova

Sussex Live 2011 brought to you by the University of Sussex Students’ Union in association with the National Lottery was all about being yourself, trying something new and showcasing what the University of Sussex Students’ Union societies has to offer.

On two nights, Thursday and Friday of last week, you could enjoy – Arts, Dance, Music, Film and Performance. The societies represented this year was: VoomKa Dance, Sussex Musical Theatre Society (SMUTS), Sussex University Drama Society (SUDS), Sussex University Big Band, Environmental Society, Breakdance Society, Indian Students Society and Show Choir. There was also an exhibition in the lobby provided by the Life Drawing Society and the Photographic Society.

The VoomKa girls opened up both nights at Sussex Live 2011 in style with an outstanding, impressive and energetic routine. Saskia Sidey, one of the dancers, comments: ‘It’s a collaborative dance piece with 21 girls taking part, it’s been a massive group effort and is our biggest performance to date’. VoomKa won an award last year at the societies celebration for making such good progress. They have girls from freshers to fourth years (and wouldn’t be adverse to boys either!).

The Badger met with the enthusiastic VoomKa team backstage for a chat before the show on the Friday. This year’s dance piece was choreographed by Saskia Sidey, Millie Gooch and Rachel Fairfield set to Katy B ‘On a Mission’ and Far East Movement ‘Like a G6’. Saskia, Millie and Rachel quickly popped out from the loge and sat down to answer some questions in the midst of make-up, change of clothes and other such preparations.

How long have you been rehearsing? We came up with the routine in the first couple of rehearsals. After that we’ve been going over and over it, everyday for the last two weeks. It’s been pretty intense (haha). It’s been brilliant rehearsing, really.

What inspired you? We wanted to put three of the main styles we do, together, in one dance that is: street dance, hip-hop and contemporary. To really showcase what we’ve got…

How come you chose to include the song ‘Like a G6’? We started with Katy B and decided to choose that one
because it had a mixture of all the styles that we wanted to do. So we started to listen to the beginning, which had a slow
contemporary feel to it. We thought that we could adapt all the styles into it…and we used ‘G6’ because that was the
routine that we’d used before. It’s a fun song and blended in quite well.

Have you enjoyed this? Yeah, it’s been really good to get to know lots of girls because people don’t always come
regularly to the class. For this, people have been coming every day.

Why did you join the Dance Society? It seemed like a good way to get to know more people. You make a lot
of friends that you would not normally meet because you are in different years. It’s another group of friends that you’ve got. And you stay in shape (haha).
Who has designed your costumes? The lovely people at Primark. We all bought plain clothes and customized
them however we wanted.

Any last words? Thank you for the opportunity. We hope to do bigger and more regular performances in the future. We are going to a Pineapple trip, London. Also, we’re doing the University Street Dance Championships. It’s good to start competing and build confidence. Sussex Live 2012 here we come!

Categories: Music

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