A&E

waltz and tango.

By KARA PEELER daily senior staffer @karapeeler

Get moving and grooving this year by engaging with any of the 20 dance groups on campus. Join a student organization or watch a performance across an array of different styles.

Ahana

This non-competitive South Asian fusion dance team puts on showcases and various performances throughout the year, aiming to spread its love for South Asian culture. Ahana, a Sanskrit word, refers to the sunlight at dawn and people’s inner light.

B. Burlesque

Culminating in an annual Winter Quarter show, B. Burlesque teaches burlesque to students of color, focusing on body and sex positivity.

Ballet Folklórico Mexicano:

With performances throughout the year on campus and in the Chicago area, this student group showcases Mexican culture with traditional folklórico dances.

BLAST is dedicated to creating an inclusive partner dancing community on campus. It has a competition season from the fall through early spring, and a showcase season from mid-winter through spring. It features classes, workshops, and social dancing ranging from swing and salsa to the

Boomshaka

This drum, dance and rhythm ensemble is written, directed and produced by students alone. It puts on high-energy performances combining hip-hop and contemporary dance and percussion throughout the year, including in ReFusionShaka with Fusion Dance Company and Refresh Dance Crew.

Dale Duro Latin Dance Company

Since 2018, Dale Duro has shown its appreciation for Latin culture, offering free workshops for different Latin dance styles, community bonding events and an annual spring showcase, h whicfeaturing styles like salsa, bachata, merengue, flamenco, cumbia, reggaeton and more.

Deeva

Deeva has blended Indian classical, Bollywood, folk, ballet, lyrical and hip-hop dance elements for more than two decades. The award-winning allfemale competitive dance team’s mission is cultural exchange through dance.

Eight Counts Ballet Company

Northwestern’s premier student-run ballet company strives to create an inclusive and welcoming ballet-based community, putting on performances and offering public classes.

Fusion Dance Company

Founded in 2003, Fusion is a collegiate dance company centered on a passion for dance — hiphop, jazz, contemporary and more.

Graffiti is one of NU’s oldest ensembles, founded in 1974. Its dances are intended to break boundaries and entertain, combining jazz, modern and ballet. The entirely student-run organization both puts on its own performances and collaborates with other organizations, such as Graffoniks with TONIK Tap.

K-Dance

Open to dancers of all experience levels, K-Dance is a student-led group that creates a community around dancing for K-Pop. There are opportunities for both casual and auditioned members, ranging from workshops to performances at campus events like Celebrasia and more.

NMP is a dance board that wants to offer students opportunities to expand as dancers. Its main events include hosting residencies and workshops, sponsoring individual projects and producing the Fall Dance Concert.

NU Bhangra Dance Team

This coed team performs traditional Punjabi folk dance to promote awareness of Punjabi culture.

NU Raas

A competitive Raas and Garba team, NU Raas performs dance from the Indian state of Gujarat. Its 15-25 members participate in a competitive season during Winter Quarter and showcase an annual Raas Spring Show.

Polerize

Polerize’s goal is to empower and educate students with pole dancing classes and performances, creating a safe community to explore strength and sensuality.

Refresh Dance Crew

Hip-hop group Refresh welcomes those from all skill levels to open sessions and classes, along with an auditioned team for shows. The Refresh family’s core values are respect, family, and hustle — inspired by a love for dance.

Steam Heat Dance Company

As a musical theatre dance company, Steam Heat both preserves original choreography and creates its own.

TONIK Tap

TONIK Tappers love to create rhythm. The tap ensemble choreographs its own performances for two on-campus shows, along with other Chicago area performances throughout the year.

Tufaan Entertainment

This Bollywood fusion dance competition organization seeks to raise awareness of South Asian culture through entertainment.

Typhoon Dance Troupe karapeeler2025@u.northwestern.edu

Typhoon highlights dances — popular, classical, ethnic and contemporary — from East and Southeast Asia. The dance group aims to use the art of dance to spur increased appreciation for the regions’ diverse cultures.

By JOYCE LI daily senior staffer @joyycee_li

For incoming Wildcats, joining an a cappella ensemble can be a great way to start the year on a high note. But with fall auditions taking place the second week of the school year and so many groups to choose from, you might have ‘treble’ deciding which one to join.

So, here’s a brief introduction to NU’s 12 a cappella groups! With so much variety in their goals, competitiveness and song choice, one is sure to strike the right chord with you.

The only all-male group on campus, Asterik — spelt with a missing “S” — is described on their website as “a group of guys who love to sing and have a good time.” This non-competitive group stages a themed show every quarter and regularly collaborates with other groups, including Significant Others. Known for their “fratty” vibe, Asterik’s previous show themes include “Rizzosaurus Rex” and “Too Hot to Handle.”

Brown Sugar is Northwestern’s premiere South Asian-interest a cappella group. The group specializes in blending Western and South Asian music in their arrangements , such as a mashup of Taylor Swift’s “willow” and Roop Kumar Rathod’s “Tujh Mein Rab Dikhta Hai.” Brown Sugar does not compete, but puts on shows in Winter and Spring Quarters and at other NU events.

Extreme Measures is a co-ed group that stages multiple performances per quarter. While they do not compete, they often tour the Chicago area and beyond to perform at charity and fundraising events. EM’s latest EP, “Denim,” will be released on streaming platforms this summer.

Despite what their name might suggest, Freshman Fifteen consists of more than 15 members, and they’re not all freshmen. The green bowling shirtclad ensemble has quarterly concerts, occasionally releases albums and arranges annual “breakdown” medleys of popular songs of the year. Formerly an all-male group, they opened up auditions to nonmale identifying students in 2021.

One of NU’s three competitive a cappella groups, Purple Haze participates biannually in the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella, most recently taking home awards for Best Soloist and Best Choreography in 2023. The group also puts on quarterly concerts and tours annually, with plans to go to Costa Rica this year.

ShireiNU

ShireiNU is NU’s Jewish a cappella group, and sings a variety of musical genres, including Hebrew pop. ShireiNU does not compete, but holds quarterly shows and performs at both on- and off-campus events, including a Chicago Bulls game this April.

NU’s only a cappella group exclusively for female and nonbinary voices, Significant Others performs pop music in quarterly themed shows and does not compete.

The only Black student a cappella group on campus, Soul4Real’s mission is to expose the NU community to historically Black musical genres, such as R&B and soul. They have concerts during Winter and Spring Quarter and do not compete.

Another competitive group, the Undertones won the 2022 ICCA Great Lakes quarterfinal, where they were also given Special Awards for Outstanding

Soloist, Outstanding Arrangement and Outstanding Choreography. The group also performs in oncampus shows, gigs around the Chicago area and on annual domestic or international tours.

Founded in 1993, THUNK is NU’s oldest co-ed a cappella group. The group holds at least two concerts a quarter, performs at special events in the Chicago area and travels to Cape Town, South Africa every other year for music education volunteer work.

Treblemakers are NU’s East Asian-interest a cappella group and the third group that competes in the ICCAs. The group has quarterly concerts and went on tour in California this spring. They perform music in multiple languages, including English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean and Tagalog.

This non-competing, co-ed group is known for wearing pink at every performance and guaranteeing each member a solo every year. X-Factors put on multiple shows every quarter and occasionally tour domestically to perform and run workshops at high schools.

joyceli2025@u.northwestern.edu