<n Students in America club (ASIA) held the Lunar New Year celebration last Friday, February 15th in the Great Hall.
“We wanted the event to feel like a celebration and also put forward Asian and Asian American issues that are prevalent today,” said Jan Dela Cruz ’15, President of ASIA. The theme this year was Asian American representation in the Media and the Arts, and incorporated a series of memorable performances, including the Chicago Tribe Break Dancers. The Chinese Ensemble played a few pieces of traditional festive music, and the Korean Student Association gave a high-energy showcase of Korean drumming.
The Carleton Karate Club, led by Mathematics Professor Robert Dobrow and with the participation of alumni and students, then surprised the crowd with a commanding demonstration of discipline and character. Later, Jay Shen ’15 performed a poem and a song, which won the applause of those in attendance.
The highlight of the night, however, was the dance performance by Chicago Tribe Break Dancers Kris “A.K.” Santiago, Tori “Torsion” Howard and Natane “Soula” Lim. They invited the audience to cheer and participate as each gave a stunning showcase of break-dance moves.
At one point the audience was asked if anyone was born in the 1980s, Martin Olague, a staff member at the Office of Intercultural and International Life, stepped forward. Olague was asked to demonstrate ‘the wave.’ After demonstrating a one-man baseball stadium wave, Olague correctly performed the dance move. A few other audience members were asked to join and pass the wave down the human chain. After passing the wave, each person gave a very spirited freestyle dance.
Torsion ended the performance with a daring flip over three bent over audience members. He nailed it successfully.
Jonathan Lin ‘13, a senior English major enjoyed the Chicago Tribe performance. “They put on a great interactive show, with plenty of lively audience participation,” he said.
The food served was a combination of catered food from New Buffet and student-made food provided by the Chinese Club, Coalition of Hmong Students, Tim Viet and ASIA club.
Yansong Pang ‘13, a senior Statistics and Psychology major, said he enjoyed the night. “The best thing about this Lunar New Year is that I had my good friends sitting around me. They are my family at Carleton.”
The dancers gave a talk afterwards about their experience becoming break-dancers. They said that there were a lot of negative associations with hip-hop music and breakdancing. To them, however, breakdancing is a means of self-expression. They encouraged students who are interested in any kinds of art form to persevere and pursue their dreams.