Student dances
through school

By MELINDA STUBBS
FOR THE UNIVERSITY JOURNAL

Walking through the doorway that separates the studio from the office of the SUU Entertainment Bureau, Josh Seumalu enters a room that is all too familiar to him.
The studio is utilized as a dance room for the SUU performance group Acclamation.
Seumalu steps onto the hardwood floors, walks to the opposite corner where the sound system is located and prepares the music.
Like many of the Acclamation performers, Seumalu is utilizing a few spare minutes to practice the newest dance number. He takes position in the center of the floor and the music begins just as he turns to face the wall of a ceiling to floor length mirrors.
Sweeping his hands over his short, dark curly hair, Seumalu stops the music and then returns to the office. Seumalu is a sophomore at SUU. Seumalu’s second year of college is also his second year being a member of Acclamation.
“When I graduated from high school, I initially planned on using a journalism scholarship at Dixie,” Seumalu said. “However, one night while hanging out with a friend in Cedar City, we decided to audition for the group.”
When Seumalu discovered he had made the team, he began attending SUU scholarship weekends. Seumalu did in fact receive a few scholarships. One of the scholarships he received is an intercultural scholarship, and is because Seumalu, who stands 5-foot-10, is Polynesian.
Josh Seumalu was born Aug. 6, 1983 in Salt Lake City. He and his parents Taylor and Cheri Seumalu lived in Salt Lake City until Josh was 3-years-old. The family then moved to St. George. Two years later, Josh’s parents divorced.
At the time of the divorce, Seumalu moved in with his mothers’ parents.
“At first I thought it was temporary,” Seumalu said. “Then, I realized what was really going on and that is when my grandparents home became my home too. My grandparents raised me. I know them as my parents.”
As a child, Seumalu remembers traveling to Las Vegas every weekend to set up the family booth at the swap meet. Seumalu would help his grandparents sell knives, porcelain dolls and Ilardro.
Seumalu stayed in St. George until the summer of 1995. He then went to Lake Tahoe to live with his father for three months. After Seumalu returned to St. George for the school year.
“The next summer was even more exciting,” Seumalu said.
Taylor, Seumalu’s father had moved home to Hawaii. He again went to stay with his father and the visit lasted nine months.
After the divorce, Seumalu never lived with his mom. At the time he was in Hawaii, Cheri lived in Los Angeles where she worked backstage at the Academy Awards and at Miss America.
In 1997, Seumalu returned to live with his grandparents. As a student at Snow Canyon High School, Seumalu tried to get involved in everything. According to his grandfather, “He was never home and never had any free time.”
He was on the track and soccer teams, involved in student