It was a gamble to bring organized hip-hop dance to Luther College in the fall of 2004, but two sophomore students took the chance and created Eklipse, which is still running even after the founding members’ graduation.

The current members of Eklipse had their final performance of the year April 30 in Marty’s. Along with dancing, they introduced new T-shirts that are for sale to help raise funds for the group and did a parody of the television show “America’s Next Best Dance Crew.”

“Words can’t even describe how happy I am about the performance last week at Marty’s,” said Julia Mann (‘09). “The team really works hard because we want to keep a good performance standard. We want to keep impressing people, and we want to keep challenging and pushing ourselves.”

Eklipse was founded over three years ago by Drew Rindfleisch (‘07) and Hemie Collier (‘07) as a way to share a passion for hip-hop dance and music. The lack of enthusiasm on campus for this genre was a challenge for the group from the beginning, and they continue to work on outgrowing expectations.

In the beginning, Rindfleisch received a lot of negative feedback. Instead of beginning with campus-wide support, the group had to gain respect through their performances.

According to Rindfleisch, this only provided more motivation for the group to improve their talents.

“People were blown away when they saw us the first year,” said Rindfleisch. “Sometimes we heard that we were pretty good for an almost all-white group, but that wasn’t good enough for me or Hemie or for the group. So our dances got more complicated, and our styles evolved.”

While Eklipse is now better known within the Luther community and has continued to expand in interest and flair, some members still notice how small of a hip-hop culture currently exists at Luther.

However, the group is still often a crowd favorite at campus events like the annual Black Student Union Talent Show. They placed second at a competition at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale last year. Male interest in the group increased over the years, allowing for more complex dances and overall creativity.

According to Sam Darnall (‘09), the past year has been a year of transition for Eklipse.

“We lost our founder Hemie Collier, which was a pretty hard hit,” said Darnall. “We are under new leadership, and the group has taken on a whole new persona.”

Mann filled the position as leader, but admits Eklipse really functions as a whole.

The creation of a routine is very collaborative. Each member brings his or her own style and technical training, including elements of ballet, modern, jazz and hip-hop.

“We choreograph all of our dances together,” said Blair Hercules (‘10). “Usually we’ll blast the music and play around with moves until we finish a dance. It’s a lot of fun to see the different dance styles come together.”

The group practices for two hours, three days a week and every night before a performance.

Tryouts for next year’s team were held April 10. Although there was a very small turnout, Eklipse took two new members and will hold auditions again in the fall.

Through their T-shirt sales and other fundraising, Eklipse members hope to attend more competitions in the future and create even more interest in the group, both on and off campus.

“I am happy Eklipse is still going on and that students are still supporting them,” said Rindfleisch. “I wish I could have seen them this year and given them my support from the audience. When you dance with people and make that connection — their style, the songs we danced to — I am always going to think of and connect with those Eklipse members.”