The juniors’ vibrant, high-energy “DC Universe”-themed quad day performance saw a significant increase from 40 to 60 participants despite the increase in academic workload.
Their performances included K-pop, all-girls, all-boys and group dances.
Juniors Adiyat Ahsan, Alma Garniek, Iris Jin, Zain Manohar, Devika Nair and Araditha Singh, playing the members of the Justice League, kicked off the performance with the superhero-themed skit centered around helping underclassmen navigate through high school.
As the first dance, K-pop dancers performed to a series of upbeat, high-tempo songs. Choreographers Claire Jung, Sam Roh and Lily Tran wanted to highlight less mainstream K-pop songs in their dance, like “Supernatural” by NewJeans and “Up” by Karina.
“We have a group of eight people who have been doing K-pop since freshman year,” Roh said. “Having culminated two years of experience definitely made a difference in our performance.”
The all-girls dance carried the same high-tempo and energy into their performance with popular songs like “Where Them Girls At” by Megan Thee Stallion and “No Broke Boys” by Tinashe.
“Our choreo was a lot more dynamic and creative this year with formations and choreography,” choreographer Cathy Yaung said. “Choreographing with other people from the dance team helps a lot because we all know each others’ styles and have spent a lot of time together.”
Afterward, the boys — led by choreographers Arian Lotfizadeh and Chloe Nguyen — turned the energy up as Lawerence He and Ian Hu each leaped over five people. The boys followed up with a series of high energy, original dances, incorporating stunts into hip-hop songs like “Trademark USA” by Baby Keem and slower songs like “Beauty and a Beat” by Justin Bieber.
“Even though junior year gets really busy and the workload ramps up, we were really glad that everybody was able to pull through and come to practices,” Lotfizadeh said.
Lotfizadeh and Nguyen navigated scheduling conflicts by holding multiple practices a day. Nguyen would send out Instagram polls to a group chat with two practice times, one in the evening and one in the night.
The group dance featured stunts and partner moves to end the performance. The juniors danced to “Hot in Here” by Nelly, “Finesse” by Cardi B and Bruno Mars and a remix of “Nokia” by Drake.
“In previous years, the guys would just stand in the back and hype the girls up,” Yaung said. “We paired them up with partners to make our group dance more cohesive.”
Overall, choreographers were satisfied with the increased participation and improvement from previous years.
“It was a little stressful towards the end because everyone’s schedules started getting busy,” Garniek said. “Even though it was tough at times, I feel like this experience definitely bonded our grade a little bit more and left us as a more spirited community.”
