Dancing Queen
Cara Horibe, a former Rainbow Dancer, wows America on MTV’s ‘Randy Jackson Presents America’s Best Dance Crew’ and may get invited on the show’s tour
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“I was out here in L.A. and nothing really solid had happened for me yet,” Horibe says.“And my plan - once dancing was out of my life - was to get into hair with my older brother Cale.”
Horibe also has a younger brother, Cole, an aspiring actor and talented dancer who won last year’s Destination Groove Dance Hawaii.
Before her big move to L.A., Horibe worked as a dancer on the cruise ships Pride of America and Pride of Hawaii. She also was a dancer for 24/7 Danceforce in Kaneohe, and served as captain of the Rainbow Dancers at the University of Hawaii.
Horibe started dancing at age 9 when she joined Drill Team Hawaii at the suggestion of her mom, Wanda.
“At the time I was also playing soccer, and then I started taking dance lessons,” recalls Horibe. “Then I had to choose between the two because it was taking a lot of time, and originally I chose soccer but then I started to miss dance, so I switched.”
Horibe’s passion for dance continued to grow and at age 12 she joined Marcelo Pacleb’s 24/7 Danceforce, the stomping ground for some of Hawaii’s most successful dancers, including Mark Kanemura, who made it to the top six on Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance, and Gil Duldulao, the longtime choreographer for Janet Jackson.
Horibe wanted to learn as much as she could from Pacleb so, although her family lived in Waialae Iki, she applied for and received a geographic exemption to attend Castle High School where Pacleb served as the dance director.
“I would make the trek every morning because I just started being a part of 24/7 Danceforce in my eighth-grade year and I wanted to get that extra training,” says Horibe, who graduated from Castle in 2002. “For me, dancing is an outlet for any emotion I have. There are days I’d go in so upset or bothered and by the end of the class I wouldn’t be thinking about it. It was such a natural high, and also a great work-out. I really don’t know what else I would be doing if I wasn’t dancing.”
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For Horibe, the journey to America’s Best Dance Crew began when she received a text message from friend and dance instructor Matt Cady on wanting to put a crew together to audition for the show.
“I was at home (in Hawaii), literally laying on the beach, when I got his text message,” remembers Horibe. “In L.A. I joined a contemporary company called Collide and I was doing a show that Matt also was a part of (as well as the boys in Fanny Pak) and that’s how we met.
“I was just in awe of Matt’s dancing. It’s so different and crazy to watch. Matt teaches a class at Debbie Reynolds Dance Studio in L.A., and after the show I decided to take his classes.”
Cady recruited the rest of the girls for the crew, and from there Fanny Pak was born.
“I didn’t really know the girls in our crew until our first rehearsal, but now we are like sisters,” says Horibe. “Since our live audition, we’re all in one hotel, all next door to each other, so we spend every waking moment together.
“And we’re all on lock down here, so that’s why we have such camaraderie with all the crews. The longer you’re here, the closer the relationship is with each other because we’re the only people you see every single day.”
Horibe, who attended Kaimuki Middle School and Kahala Elementary, says the crew’s name Fanny Pak was chosen as a tribute to the 1980s.
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“We were trying to think of what the vibe of our crew was, and we’re all ‘80s inspired,” she explains. “We appreciate the beat and and everything about the ‘80s, which is loud and unapologetic. It very much fits our characters, so we decided to go with something iconic of the ‘80s.
“We liked Fanny Pak because it was something we could wear and use as a gimmick. Also, pak was another word for crew.”
While waiting for the final casting of America’s Best Dance Crew, Horibe was hired to play a “funky cheerleader” in Disney’s High School Musical 3.
Then she found out Fanny Pak made it to the finals, and now Horibe can only wonder what would’ve happened if she gave up on her dream too soon.
“I really was on the verge of rethinking my career because this was taking a lot longer than I would’ve hoped,” says Horibe. “When you go to an audition and you don’t get that call back, it’s incredibly discouraging.
“I just want to thank the people in Hawaii for their amazing support. And my advice for aspiring dancers is that if it’s your passion, if it’s your dream, just go for it and don’t give up until you get what you want.
“If I hadn’t stuck it out a little bit longer, you never know what would’ve happened.”
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