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UB student wins famed Apollo Theater talent show
By Harumi Kawamura, Class of 2002
fter establishing
his reputation at UB as the founder of SOUL BEAT, and as the director of the award-winning Japanese performances at UB’s annual International Festival, Kenichi Ebina has moved on to New York, where he established BiTriP (Bi-Triangle Performance) with two other Japanese hip-hop dancers. Their biggest accomplishment took place on Dec. 26, when they won first place at the Apollo Theatre Amateur Night. With that win, they join the ranks of performers such as Ella Fitzgerald, Jackson 5, and Lauren Hill, who all won the Apollo Amateur Night.
Kenichi Ebina, right foreground, a UB graduate and leader of the Bi-TriP hip-hop dancers, joins other members of Bi-TriP and cast members of the show after his troupe won Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater in Harlem in late December.
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Ebina recounted that he and the other two members of Bi-TriP, Karuki Kai and Atsushi Suzuki, "felt we had to win rather than want to [win the competition]." To reach their goal they recruited four other hip-hop dancers, all Japanese, to make a dance troupe of seven. Together, they created a dance routine that eventually nabbed first place.
The result was what senior Tadami Yoshida, among more than twenty Japanese UB students who drove to Harlem to view the performance, described as "well-thought and well-organized." As the Apollo Theatre Amateur Night chooses the winner according to audience response, Yoshida reflected that "the audience was definitely for Ebina's group." Senior Koji Okamoto added that Bi-TriP was by far the best performer because "almost everyone was copying people like Michael Jackson or Whitney Houston, but Bi-TriP were the only original dancers."
As winners of the competition, Bi-TriP received $1,000 and free domestic flight tickets from Continental Airlines. Although the Dec. 26 performance will not air on television, Ebina plans to shoot for TV’s "Showcase" in August, to be aired in September or October.
Despite initial nervousness, Ebina said, "We enjoyed performing, and we were so happy after the show because we are the first Japanese performers to win first prize."
Holding a mass communications degree from UB, Ebina said he uses his knowledge of advertising to promote Bi-TriP. It has definitely paid off, as Bi-TriP continues to climb the ladder of success with such events as the one at the Apollo Theatre as well as performing for KRS-One and BET-sponsored emcee battles.
Ebina, who graduated in May 2000, emphasized that the UB experience was integral to his current success. "Without the UB experience," Ebina said, "I would not be where I am. I started dancing after I went to UB, and without events like the International Festival, directing the Japanese performance and the Soul Beat performances, I would not be dancing." Ebina professed he had never taken dance classes but simply learned dancing by watching and imitating dancers on videos and at clubs.
Ebina currently works and performs with a variety of dance companies, such as the Conservatory of Dance in Georgetown and the Connecticut Ballet, CHALASA Dance Theater, and Double G Productions, as well as at various middle and high schools.
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