Sacramento group Night Walkers nurtured dancers through pop-up events. Now, they have a home

Sacramento native Bryan Dang started dancing solo in his garage 15 years ago, but he soon emerged to help organize dance meet-ups in vacant parking lots, alleyways and underground dance studios.

Dance has always been a refuge for Dang that’s provided him with opportunities he never imagined for himself.

When Dang brought together a community of dancers in 2015 to host curated sessions called Night Walkers, his goal was to allow other artists to showcase talents in an unfiltered, raw environment. From Night Walkers, some members took their talents to bigger stages, like Konkrete, who landed a spot dancing on Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour. The Night Walkers have also danced alongside the Jabbawockeez, a dance crew that has performed in various reality TV dance competitions.

Dang has always been devoted to providing a dance venue for others, and he’s finally found a more permanent dance home. The Night Walkers have started to host sessions every Thursday night at Tiger, a downtown Sacramento restaurant, bar and lounge.

They’re calling the weekly sessions “Intrusion” because Dang and the Night Walkers want to invite dancers, of all styles, and dance enthusiasts to “intrude” on the dance floor.

His goal is to make the dance community and culture more accessible to people, allowing them to experience it in a brand new way. Dang said his partnership with HOF, an event production and promotion company, allows him to do that.

“It’s important because dance is a lot more social than people realize,” Dang said. “Having a beautiful space like Tiger and having a team like HOF and Night Walkers come together to produce something for street dance to be in an amazing space and have an amazing experience and time. It’s vital for a community to thrive and grow.”

If people want to get into dance, Dang said they know where to find it.

The birth of Intrusion

Way before they held their first Intrusion night at Tiger, the Night Walkers had begun to set the foundation for what the event is today.

In 2018 and 2019, the Night Walkers recruited the best dancers in Northern California for a tour of different cities such as Los Angeles, Portland and Salt Lake City.

Now, they want other dancers to do the same.

“We would intrude their city showing that we’re the best, showing that Northern California has some of the best talent in the world to offer,” Dang said. “Now what we’re doing with Intrusion here at Tiger is that we’re inviting those same cities, plus more, to come back to (our) home turf. We’re inviting people from all around the world, all around the United States to come out and to compete with Northern California and Sacramento.”

A pop-up session was thrown at Tiger on a random Sunday evening to test the waters.

It was well-received.

“We saw the energy of what Tiger looked like when people were hanging over the balcony and the dining room, like the dance floor turned into this kind of coliseum feel and created this open space (with) everybody surrounding it,” said Robbie Metcalf, HOF co-founder and co-owner of Tiger.

Following the pop-up, Metcalf sat down with Dang and other members of Night Walkers over dinner to discuss how they could bring that “energy” to life, every week.

Prior to Intrusion, Metcalf wasn’t sure if there was any venue accessible to dancers.

And in case there wasn’t, he wanted to make sure there was, especially after the success of their test run.

“So I’m kind of getting my eyes open to Sacramento’s dance community through these guys,” Metcalf said. “I’ve known that there’s a huge dance community in Sacramento like Night Walkers, Koncept, Kida the Great. Even just those names, if you know those names, you know, there’s something here.”

The first official Intrusion night at Tiger was on May 25, a Thursday, and it would be a recurring thing.

Thursday nights have become an event of diverse dance expression, featuring everything from cyphers (freestyle dance sessions), labbing (experimenting or practicing your dance moves), and monthly dance battles.

“I’ve never seen a home or a space for the dance community,” Metcalf said. “This is something that deserves spotlight, deserves recognition. It deserves a place for people to come every single week to feel like it’s their home, feel like it’s for them. And let’s make it fun…something that’s really cool to watch — and if you’re a dancer — really cool to be a part of.”

Who are the Night Walkers?

Dang has brought together a unified community of dancers, the way he has always done since he can remember.

Veeramrit “Vee” Randhawa remembers meeting Dang because he was a friend of his younger brother.

When Dang explained his idea of Night Walkers to him, Randhawa said he knew it would be a success.

“Something just draws you in,” Randhawa said. “That guy feels something that I also feel. So I said let’s do something.”

Dang had ideas that he developed, Randhawa said.

“We just clicked and our work ethic, the way we think. We are both our own unique individual personalities,” Randhawa said. “But the way we mesh without having to create an outline of how we’re supposed to work was just natural.”

He said the vision for Night Walkers went from “Bryan’s dream” to a “team dream”.

“We’ve been dreaming about something like this in our own avenues,” Randhawa said.

Dancing has been Randhawa’s life since he first started watching VHS tapes of breakdancing.

At first glance, he said, you wouldn’t think that he’s a dancer because he wears a turban.

“Honestly, as a Punjabi guy and just the way I looked I was always stigmatized, like ‘you’re going to fit in one pocket,’” Randhawa said. “It was always ‘You’re going into health care, you’re going to become a doctor and that’s all you need to think of.’”

It’s a stigma he’s been fighting since he dedicated his life to the dance culture.

Randhawa said he has always had a different drive to prove that anything can be accomplished without being boxed in.

He’s danced in different styles such as contemporary, jazz, and ballroom.

Prior to joining Night Walkers, he danced in a crew called Step Boys, where some members went on to join reality show “America’s Best Dance Crew.” Randhawa auditioned with “So You Think You Can Dance,” but ultimately was not selected as a winner.

Night Walkers isn’t just Dang and Randhawa, there’s 16 of them total.

They’re not just a dance crew, they’re a dance family.

Community, culture and ‘art of dance’

Randhawa is a B-boy, or break dancer, although he knows different styles.

Dang specializes in krump style, a highly energetic movement that expresses raw emotion. The style was popularized in 1999 and the 2000s and was seen as a reincarnation of hip-hop dance culture, which waged a friendly rivalry between B-boys and B-girls, as break dancing is often considered the origin of hip-hop dance culture.

Whether tap dancing, or two stepping, the Intrusion environment is welcoming to all styles.

Sacramento native, JJ Varghese said her experience was “amazing” as she was able to get her dance “fix” with their diverse music selections.

She discovered Intrusion when she was looking for a new studio to go to.

“It was such a great vibe, great energy and it was wonderful to see people of my age group come together and just communicate through the art of dance,” Varghese said.

She developed a deep passion for dance since she started around 2010 specializing in ballroom, tango, and salsa.

She said it was a safe space to come together, whether your technique is good or not.

“I think it’s just that first initial step of getting out of your comfort zone,” Varghese said. “Going to (Intrusion) will teach you a lot and tell you that there’s other humans out there that share this same passion as you do.”

HB Boosalis on the other hand, does not dance, she watches instead.

She has always been interested in the history of hip-hop, therefore always loved to watch dancing.

“I’m absolutely a spectator and I love it,” Boosalis said.

She went to the very first Intrusion night because her friend’s sister was going to dance.

She ended up seeing many dancers she knew that night.

“I find this community to be very important. I fell in love with the dance community. I really felt the sense of family,” Boosalis said.

Her favorite part of it all, she’s said, is the healthy competition mentality.

“These are battles but at the end of the day they’re shaking hands and they’re dancing together,” Boosalis said. “Just everybody having a good time while they’re competing. You see it in their faces and that’s the kind of stuff that really drew me to the dance scene.”

‘Friendly competition’

Every last Thursday of the month, people are welcome at Intrusion to battle one another for a $500 cash prize, courtesy of Casamigos.

The June 29th Intrusion event will highlight dancers from guest city or region: the Bay Area.

Many dance crews will be in the building trying to take home — friendly — bragging rights between Sacramento and The Bay.

For Sacramento dance group Black Flag, they will be holding it down, representing their hometown.

The Sacramento crew is made up of Wren Crisologo, Matt Hiabu, Anthony Wey and Michael Ringgold.

They’ve been together as a dance crew for nearly five years.

Ringgold explained their style as a mix of animation, hip-hop grooves, and “a little bit of yikin’,” a dance move in which people sway side-to-side in a rhythmic movement.

“It’s always friendly competition, but it’s like that personal feeling too like we hold our own in Sacramento,” Hiabu said. “We are Sacramento, we got our own thing. We gotta rep hard for that.”

Black Flag has danced on many stages including with Bay Area rap legend E-40, in a music video with Juice WRLD and for the Sacramento Kings.

“Dance has taken us to hella places that we never would have thought,” Wey said. “The energy is always hella love. We try to get the crowd hella turnt up as much as possible and the crowd always gives us that energy and we give it back.”

He said that dance is still underground, it’s just the dance community is showing up in Sacramento.

If you go:

Where: Tiger Restaurant & Lounge, 722 K St., Sacramento

When: 10 p.m until 1:30 a.m.

Price: Free, participants and attendees must be age 21 and above