‘Emergency Crew’ – creativity, youthfulness, energy and aspiration |19 December 2022
Ronny Marengo
Seychelles’ dance arena is today synonymous to ‘Emergency Crew’.
The crew, which gained prominence after winning the 2018 ‘Sesel I annan Talan’ competition, has since been on an onward trajectory, representing Seychelles at international level, attracting many dance enthusiasts and recently transforming into a dance academy.
Seychelles NATION talks to its founder, Ronny Marengo, as the dance crew turns a new page, decentralising its classes to target the whole of Mahé.
Seychelles NATION: When did it all start for you?
RM: It all started when I was in Secondary 5, I was 15 years old at the time. The popular movie, ‘You Got Served’, which was an American dance drama, had just been released and I remember every person around my age got so excited about the movie. Every young person who saw the movie wanted to dance and do exactly like the actors. It was the same for me and that is when I started dancing. I remember putting on my first show at school, on Children’s Day. It was back then that someone from a dance group named ‘Straight hood crew’ saw me perform and invited me to join their team. It was a group based in Anse Royale under the district’s youth programme. That is where it all started and the rest is history.
Seychelles NATION: Modern dancing was mostly associated with girls at the time, so how were you perceived?
RM: In fact there was a lot of negativity ; the fact that I was performing modern dance and some people were being negative about it, was not really demoralising because I loved what I was doing. I wanted to show people that it was not restricted to girls only. I wanted to break that barrier because my vision and aim was to dance, so I ignored negative comments and did not let them get to me.
So, when I joined the School of Dance, those comments were uttered all the time, but I wanted to show that it was false and dancing is simply an art form. It was a way for me to express myself, as well as a past-time and if your interest lies there, then you should pursue it and learn to face those negativity. I think this is why in Seychelles you see fewer boys and men dancing at professional level.
They are scared of how they will be perceived as dancing is associated mostly with girls. That was one of my dreams; to overcome this and I am happy you’ve asked me that question. Because I wanted to see more boys dancing and get more of them to come forward. And for them to come forward there need to be a role model, for them to look up to. I have seen an improvement and more boys are joining. It is still not the number we would have liked, but at least there is a change, and more of them are dancing. My advice to them, don’t let people demoralise you. Come forward, show our force and our talents.
Seychelles NATION: Did you learn on your own or have you had some form of training?
RM: I started on my own, learning from TV shows, movies and since I studied art I was always interested in everything artistic and creative. And I think my creative background helps me to get the concepts, the ideas when I have to come up with a dance for a show. And it was at that time that the School of Dance saw me. I was the one carrying the big drum during the Indian Ocean island games that took place here. So they saw me and that is when I started following proper dance training. I got the basics there, learning how to dance professionally. And there I followed a lot of classes, doing ballet and modern dance, taking part in biennale, national shows. I won the runners-up title for Best Student at the School of Dance and I once won title for best student as well. I did around seven years there and I learned a lot from my instructors.
Seychelles NATION: When and why did you start Emergency Crew and how many members did you have at the beginning?
RM: I started Emergency Crew in 2009. There were three of us in the original team; myself, Diane (my partner) and Judith. Soon after, few other dancers joined, bringing the team to ten. But as you know as years go by, people move on to other priorities, so some members left.
Seychelles NATION: What are the achievements and challenges of Emergency Crew?
RM: One of the challenges was securing a venue for practice. We always struggled to find a venue to train the dancers. We have to rent a place and fortunately CEPS has given us a spot where we can promote dance as an art form among young people. Things are going well for now.
There are plenty of successes. The number of young people who has learned about us and want to join is plenty and this is great and a positive feeling. It keeps me motivated and gives me the extra energy to keep teaching dance.
Our biggest achievement is that we changed our logo and changed our mandate to become a dance academy. We are presently teaching dance to all age categories including small children. We have junior and adult classes, which have become successful. I am proud of this. We cannot keep up with requests from people wanting to learn how to dance; we get a lot of calls from both kids and adults so this is very positive and it shows that Emergency Crew has developed and grown, and is well-known.
Seychelles NATION: You have more dancers and in August this year Emergency Crew hosted a major show at the International Conference Centre. Talk a little bit about the show.
RM: The show was to launch the academy. In January, when we decided to start teaching dance, we wanted to create platforms to get children interested in dancing. Because if there is no platform for them to train and learn how to dance they will not be interested or come forward.
So, this platform was a way to showcase these talents because I believe there’s a lot of talent out there. So from February onwards, we started hosting training for three categories; kids, junior and adults. The target was for them to showcase what they have learned within six months.
The performance was like a test for everybody, a test for young dancers to see the level they were at, and a test for our dance instructors to see whether we were reaching our targets and achieving results. Does Seychelles have enough dancers? Are there talented young people out there who will be able to put together a show? The show was a huge success with a big turnout. It was full house actually, with lots of positive messages and people even asking us to do a repeat. We are still looking into that. Of course lots of parents are now calling us saying their kids want to learn how to dance.
I believe this art form is a way of keeping young people busy, away from so many negative things. People need to know that there are so many things they can get involved with, they just need to find the opportunities and seize them.
And at Emergency Crew Academy we want to create those opportunities for the young people.
Seychelles NATION: What is the next project?
RM: Our next project is to penetrate into all districts, and make our presence felt there. We want to decentralise dancing because we are getting a lot of demands. We have to work hard to pull it off. And of course we will also focus on our TV programme, ‘Beyond’, to make it bigger and turn it into some form of fiesta.
Seychelles NATION: Your advice to anyone who would like to pursue dancing as an art form?
RM: If you feel you are talented, you should not hesitate to join a dance group. There are so many great things you can do in Seychelles, so go right ahead and do it.
(The accompanying photos show some highlights of Ronny’s journey with the Emergency Crew)
Patsy Canaya
