UNC dance groups Kamikazi and Moonlight team up to honor the Casey family

Debbie Casey died in 2018 after a long battle with ovarian cancer. This year, her daughter Madi Casey's former dance groups Moonlight Dance Crew and Kamikazi Dance Team are on a mission to raise money for a good cause while showcasing talent within the dance community.

Moonlight and Kamikazi are joining forces to host the Debbie Casey Memorial Showcase on Nov. 23 at the UNC Friday Center for Continuing Education. The event will begin at 1 p.m. and last until approximately 5 p.m.

This is the first year the teams are hosting such an event. 

Cinthia Ogbaugo is a member of both Moonlight and Kamikazi. She is also one of the publicity co-chairpersons for Moonlight. 

“Madi Casey is such a joyous person, just so loving," Ogbaugo said. "After meeting her mom for the first time, it was like meeting her twin. Her whole family is such loving people. They're always willing to open their arms, their homes and anything they can to you.”

The dance groups will be taking donations along with sending part of the ticket proceeds to a charity of Madi Casey’s choice. The groups also raised money through a benefit night at Ms. Mong earlier in the week, and will continue to raise with “The MoonKazi Workshop," a series of dance classes that will be held on Nov. 24. 

Alison Chau is the outreach chairperson for Moonlight. Chau said she remembers the Casey family as strong advocates for dance. 

 “(Madi’s) mother and her family were big supporters of both teams and the general dance community in North Carolina,'' Chau said.

Some believe that there is a rivalry between the two groups, which Chau said is a misconception. She said that this will be a great bonding experience for the two teams.

“When people hear Moonlight and Kamikazi they almost think of it as ‘Oh, there’s a rivalry’ or ‘Oh, this team's better than that team’, but that’s not the case,” Chau said. “Having the showcase is one of our ways of teaming up together to show people we support each other.”

This is a showcase, not a competition, Chau said. 

“That’s what the dance community is about, coming together and collaborating, not necessarily competing,” Chau said. 

The majority of the featured teams are from North Carolina. Chau said the show will include dance teams from other in-state universities such as Duke University, N.C. State University and UNC-Wilmington. 

“We want to make this a regular thing because typically during this time, there is no big showcase in the North Carolina area," Chau said. “We wanted to make one specifically here, that way N.C. teams could come out and support one another.”

Sophie Swift is on the executive board of Kamikazi as their event coordinator. She helped arrange the collaboration with Moonlight. 

“As a team and executive board, we knew we couldn't do it by ourselves," Swift said. "So we really wanted to bring Moonlight into the picture. We felt we could work together to create something really awesome with combined forces.”

Swift said there are many showcases in the spring semester, and the two dance crews felt there was a niche that needed to be filled for a fall showcase. 

Swift said that while the majority of acts are hip-hop dance crews, the variety of the show will be immense. 

“One of the most amazing things about the North Carolina dance community and the greater dance community in the area is that everyone is just so supportive, encouraging, and fantastic," Swift said. “Everyone really likes to cheer for each other. The noise in the auditorium is gonna be crazy.”

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