Freshmen overcome hurdles for challenging but rewarding quad day performance

Two freshman skit performers battle each other using pool noodles during quad day.

The quad day lineup featured dances, skits, as well as a rap and pool noodle fight.

Near the green streamers and cardboard ninja turtle cutouts decorating the cafeteria entrance on Tuesday, Sept. 21, a bustling crowd of students raced to claim seats on the benches arranged around the quad. As music blared, four freshmen dressed in dark green sprinted down the quad steps and struck poses, acting as Ninja Turtles, Michelangelo, Leonardo, Donatello and Raphael to represent the class’s Homecoming theme of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

Despite lack of experience as well as injuries, the freshmen ultimately pulled through to perform their lineup of skits, dances and raps, including a pool noodle fight.

Initially, Class of 2025 leaders struggled to organize their performance. Freshman vice president and choreographer Anisa Taymuree fractured her foot late in the planning process, forcing choreographers to scramble last minute to redo formations due to her prominent roles in almost every single dance. As a result, dancers needed to relearn their positions just in time for quad day.

Freshmen Niraali Garg, Krishen Khanna, Timothy Leung and Rylee Stanton represented the characters Michelangelo, Raphael, Donatello and Leonardo, respectively, in the skit. The storyline of the skit revolved around four ninja turtle freshmen learning to navigate the school and being introduced to their classes.

After a brief introduction, the first dance was set to the energetic music of “Blue Hour” by K-pop boy group TXT. A skit interlude was followed by the jazzy Bollywood dance to “Girls Like to Swing” by Sunidhi Chauhan.

After two students playing ninja turtles held a pool noodle sword fight, choreographers Katie Berger, Juhi Karamcheti, Saejel Thomas and Sophia Dicheva performed to SOS by Rihanna. Following a rap by Leonardo, their quad day concluded with the All-Girls’ Dance, All-Boys’ dance and group dance.

Taymuree, who choreographed the boys’ dance, reported that the boys’ dance was somewhat chaotic due to her injury.

“When I got injured, it started to fall apart,” she said. “They forgot a portion of it, but we still got a great reaction from the crowd.”

In addition to last-minute choreography and injuries, the freshmen also experienced technical problems on the day of the performance. For example, microphone issues caused difficulty in projecting their volume and they mixed up a few props.

Nevertheless, the 45 freshman participants continued to push through their performances and ended up ranking second to last place among the four grade levels.

“I think the performance was a lot better than the run through we had the night before,” Taymuree said. “I’m incredibly proud of all the participants for putting in the time and effort to get where we are in such a short period of time.”