By Emma Wu
February 14, 2024 is not just a day for romance and valentines. It is the day of the Williamsville East High School annual cultural arts performance brought by the Unity in Diversity Club! The club has been working hard from the beginning of the school year to create, practice, and put together various dances and acts from a wide range of cultures.
While Mr. Huber and Mrs. Korn advise the club, each act was initiated by a student group leader who either found a choreography or choreographed a short performance incorporating a specific culture’s elements and music. Group members could sign up for any act they found interest in and perform the act in the show. The acts of this year’s show are from a wide variety of cultures: Korea, China, Mexico, India, Japan, Afro-Caribbean, France, Brazil, America, Britain, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, and Singapore.
Much work goes into ensuring the show runs well. From stage crew to administration to students, communication is necessary between all levels of the school to work out the logistics of this annual assembly. Furthermore, there are several aspects of the show that must be considered when running it, such as lights, music, curtains, timing, announcements, and much more. The club has its amazing officers and advisors that worked tirelessly to cover all of these considerations of the show. Here is a closer, behind-the-scenes cover of all of this hard work behind the wonderful show through statements and interviews with our Unity and Diversity Club officers: President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Program Coordinator.
What goes into creating a specific act? Our Unity Secretary, Surya Avasarala, provides insight into the attire, music, and choreography that goes into making a specific act. He is a group leader of the South India Act and talks about how he approached the idea of the act, “Choosing music for South India was a very difficult but very fun process. We made sure to pick various high energy songs while also making sure that we could include some songs from our favorite actors as well.” Aside from the music, he made sure to choose attires that were relatively easy to get into and change out of for convenience of other acts, while also bringing characteristics of the culture. Furthermore, although this act has quite intensive choreography, it was ensured that the moves and music would be doable to the majority of performers. Thus, this creates an act both engaging to watch and engaging to participate in.
Beyond the arrangement of the act, there is the magnitude of preparation that goes into it, bringing life to the act. Our Unity President, Pen Fang, sheds light on the rehearsal process and group preparation that goes into ensuring the dances and acts perform. “It’s very student driven,” they say. “I co-lead two groups, K-Pop and China. Leading K-Pop, which is technically a huge group to pull together — we have around thirty people this year — means I end up doing a lot of prep before each rehearsal to make sure most people can be there, whether that be reviewing dance moves, making formations, coordinating scheduling polls, learning multiple parts of a choreography… infamously making a Google Slides presentation for a monthly plan. This year, I’ve made heavy use of recordings as well, recording tutorials and practice videos for people who can’t be there. Rehearsing also means finding space that can allow for fifteen, twenty people to be dancing at the same time, which is why you might’ve seen us practicing in the Commons this year.”
“Teaching the dance is something I’m still learning to do.” they admit. “Last year, there was a lot of group learning from videos. This year, I think I’ve been better at knowing what I want to see from a choreography, and because of that, I know how to teach it better. There’s always the element of giving it my all during rehearsal for me. I feel like it’s easier for people to build off my energy that way. The rehearsal environment is something special for me because it’s just us and dance, this form of personal expression, and we work together to create something beautiful.”
“It’s so worth it,” they add, “seeing everything slowly come together. Everyone is willing to work really hard and I’m so grateful and proud of everything they’ve accomplished. I can learn the dances a million times over and teach them, but in the end, it’s the group dedication and interaction that really pulls everything together.”
Now, in consideration of the practicing and reviewing the show in its entirety, the Unity Vice President, Angelina Tang, tells us about the checkpoints and dress rehearsals. “Since the entire show is prepared independently by students, we host three checkpoints from November to January where the entire club meets after school one day and the groups all present their act’s progress to the officers and advisors,” she says. Usually, the first checkpoint is 30 seconds of the act, the second is 1 minute, and the third is the entire act a few weeks before the show. “We want to see consistent progression by the groups. Rushing together acts two weeks before the show is not how we roll here.” Checkpoints are also effective times for the advisors to check in with group leaders, make sure that everyone knows what clothing they’re going to wear for the show, and figure out a sense of how long each act is.
In addition, the show is kicked up a notch thanks to the dress rehearsals held on the two days before the show. This year, they’re February 12th and 13th. Dress rehearsals are exactly what they sound like–full run-throughs of the show with stage crew hooking up the stage lights and music, complete with practice quick changes and costume shuffling. This is when the finishing touches are really placed on Unity. “Our dress rehearsals help us smooth out all the little technical difficulties before the big day. They also give our performers a chance to take inventory of everything they need to bring on show day, from clothing to hair ties to safety pins, in addition to timing out costume changes.” It’s truly a treat to see how the show ties itself so neatly together in the end, especially for the officers who have worked so hard to make this happen.
Of course, all of these aspects require funding to back up the operation. Fundraisers and the allocation of money and resources is the job our Unity Treasurer, Julia Luong, takes on. “Typically, for our fundraisers in Unity and Diversity, we raise money primarily through bake sales. We often bring in cultural baked goods as well as regular ones that are enjoyed by a vast majority of people.” Through fundraisers such as these, everyone is able to enjoy a snack, as well as broaden their perspectives of culture through various new delicacies. The distribution of this funding is a major consideration that Julia takes on, “Our money from fundraisers are used to purchase flags of different countries and ethnic clothing of different cultures to wear during our dances in the show.” These are the decorative aspects of the stage and the performers that tie the entire show together. Furthermore, our Treasurer adds that each year has its cost, “Often we need to get flags and clothes every year because there are often new countries added into the show each year to gain greater representation of as many cultures and countries as possible.” All of this funding making the show possible would not be possible without the wonderful support of the school in donations from bake sales and their participation and support in the assembly itself.
Finally, managing the performance itself requires an immense amount of planning, in regard to the people, rosters, program, and act order, which our Program Coordinator, Tanisha Chanda, accomplishes. Organizing the show order and program has many aspects to consider. She says, “There’s many factors that come into play when deciding the order of the acts such as stage crew requests and overall division of show time. We had to take into account every participant’s needs while creating a balanced show.” Some groups require certain props or stage equipment, which would need to be taken into consideration when switching from one act to another. Furthermore, the performers’ needs are also analyzed when creating the show order, “We looked at each individual’s groups and made sure they would have sufficient time to get ready for each performance.” Many of our club members are in multiple performances, which creates a necessity to organize the acts so that there is time to change costumes and prepare. In addition, the entire flow of the show must be considered, “… we also considered separations between dance, music, and martial arts.” This allows for a cohesive and well-organized show that allows the performers and crew to transition and perform at their best while also providing an entertaining and engaging experience for the audience.
We hope you enjoy the 2024 Unity in Diversity Performance!
