Main Stacks is UC Berkeley's first competitive hip-hop team. Main Stacks will be hosting Prelude Norcal on November 14th at Chabot College in Hayward. Hyphen got a chance to chat with Co-Executive Directors Denise Chan & Ramsey Magana about the team and the life of a dancing college student.

Tell me about Main Stacks.

Denise Chan: Mainstacks was started two years ago by May Matsuo and Vivian Peng. It is the first competitive hip-hop team on the UC Berkeley campus. Basically what we do is we're a competitive team. 

Ramsey Magana: The mission set by Vivian and May -- we really wanted to really build the dance community in [Northern California] because when we'd go to [Southern California] competitions, the dance community here wasn't as established, so what they wanted to do was help build that. So started community classes and we are bringing back Prelude Norcal, which is the competition we are hosting in November 14.

Tell me more these competitions.

DC: We have a team of 40. Normally at these competitions teams range from 20-40 members and that's how our competitions go. 

RM: One thing people may not see is the culture and everything that goes on backstage. One of our favorite things about competitions is getting to meet other dancers on other teams and getting to compete with teams we always see on Youtube. It's really fun to introduce yourself and get to know these people on a more personal level.

DC: You're competing, but it's also a chance to get to know all these other dance teams, get to know these dancers.

Is everyone in Main Stacks a student?

RM: Most of the team comprises of current students but we also have some UC Berkeley Alumni. We do have people who go to school or just work outside of UC Berkeley. 

DC: We've had some high school students audition for Main Stacks as well. We don't really have an age limit.

Do most of the people have backgrounds in dance?

RM: For me personally, I didn't do much dancing before high school and Main Stacks is my first competitive team. One thing that's not common for other teams, but Main Stacks does take a lot of dancers who may not have been on a competitive hip-hop team before. So we're willing to help train and build and we all have the same goal, which is to improve.

Do people on the team consider becoming professional dancers?

DC: We don't encourage or discourage it, I think for Main Stacks it's just a team that's just a family. Because we're all from Berkeley, a lot of students do take dance as a side thing in addition to whatever they're studying. So it's kind of a sense of relief from all the school work - to relieve stress and everything. I'm not sure if people if too many people on the team would consider dance as a career.

RM: Especially because coming to Berkeley, Berkeley doesn't necessarily have the strongest dance program if you want to becoming a professional dancer in hip-hop. I don't think anyone comes to Berkeley with the intention of becoming a professional hip-hop dancer. A

Sure.

RM: But l feel all the dancers in Main Stacks share this passion for dance. They're willing to put in that extra time, that extra effort that comes with being on a competitive team.

DC: And I've seen the work ethic of Main Stacks and I think any one of the dancers is capable of pursuing dance as a career, but I don't know if they would necessarily want to do that.

In the last five, ten years, hip-hop dance has gotten really, really popular. There's more and more crews, and a lot of the crews have strong Asian American representation. What do you think it is about this particular style of dance that attracts us?

DC: I actually wrote a paper on this! About Asian Americans in the hip-hop community, especially dancing. My thesis was about how the Asian American community had taken this form of dancing that's historically been African American or Latino American…and morphed it a little bit and personalized it. I think what hip hop dance is today is totally different from what people ten, twenty years ago would consider hip hop. It's not long that old school, it's not longer just battling or breakdancing anymore. It's suddenly more focused on choreography, about making a set that is aesthetically pleasing for the audience, utilizing alternate choreo, utilizing different levels, and dancing as a group instead of individual dancers. 

Was there a personal reason you decided to start doing hip-hop?

DC: I started dancing ballet at a very young age and did a lot of technical dancing. And when I saw my first hip-hop performance I knew I wanted to do it. It wasn't something my parents necessarily supported, so I went out and got a job and paid for my own dance classes because I wanted to do hip-hop. It wasn't something at the norm, not something my parents wanted me to do, maybe it was during my rebellious stage, I don't know.

RM: I just remember when I was little I used to watch a lot of TV and I used to like the music videos, so I was always interested in it but I didn't really pursue it until the middle of my senior year in high school. Likewise I would pay for my own outside classes. My parents didn't necessarily discourage it but they didn't encourage it. It was just something I wanted to do so I went for it.

For people who are just starting to dance, what is some advice you wish you had when you first started?

RM: If I were to give myself advice, I would say the two main things improve yourself as a dancer is to watch yourself on video and compare yourself to other dancers that you idolize…and then you can be more self-aware. Also, take as many classes as you can, you know, practice, practice, practice. That increases self-awareness, speed of learning, execution and tons of other things.

DC: I would say for a new dancer to be very specific in everything that you do. When you watch anyone when you take dance classes, be very, very aware that every single movement that the choreographer is doing. And also advice I wish I had heard when I was younger - I wish someone had told me you're never too old to dance, you can dance at any age. When I started doing ballet or doing hip-hop, there's always dancers who had started younger than me, who had more training than I did. But, I mean, anyone can reach that level.

Where did the name "Main Stacks" come from?

RM: Main Stacks is actually the name of the central library at UC Berkeley. The starting members were thinking about what they could name the team and they wanted something related to Berkeley, however for people outside of Berkeley [the name] might sound cool. So they came up with Main Stacks. For people not from Berkeley they might not know it's necessarily a library so they don't think, "Oh, these poor dorks", it just sounds like a cool word.

What's the next competition you guys will be at?

DC: Our next competition is World of Dance.

RM: It's a few weeks away.