Our school’s efforts towards planning Springfest
Liana Dong
Staff Writer
As the third quarter meanders along, school spirit seems to drop to an all time low. With NOF’s, state testing, and approaching AP exams, it’s hard to find energy to do anything other than grind. While unfortunately postponed this year due to the coronavirus outbreak, Springfest, an annual weeklong spirit event that is scheduled to conclude with a Black Light Rally this year, serves to lighten these spirits—but not without the hard work from those in charge.
On every day leading up to the rally, performances will occur in the rotunda for Battle of the Bands.
“Battle of the Bands is a weeklong lunchtime event during Springfest where each class [assembles] a band and performs on their respective day,” Ashley Lee (11), the Leadership Recognition co-head, explains. “It’s an event for us to recognize the talented musicians at our school while also playing into the competitive aspect of Springfest because the best band is announced at the night rally at the end of the week!”
While the performances may seem seamless, it takes a lot of effort to perfect the logistics.
“Battle of the Bands is run by the recognition committee in Leadership, ASB executives, and class elects, and we started preparing about a month ago by creating a Facebook group and adding all class elected officers into it,” Lee says.” [We] posted about rules for Battle of the Bands and deadlines and dates for song selections and final rehearsals and whatnot. ASB Exec and Recognition are mainly in charge of communicating [this information], and from there class elects create group chats with their chosen musicians to ensure that they’re on track with their rehearsals.”
As the week comes to a close, the Black Light Rally will include a Creator’s University performance led by Hanah Abualhaj and a Tahitian performance led by senior Jasmine Miguel.
“This performance isn’t really a club performance but Rallies Committee asked me if I could choreograph Tahitian for the Black Light Rally,” Miguel (12) says. “With the late notice of becoming a choreographer, I hand-selected my dancers! I chose dancers that I knew would be committed to the dance and already have the basics down. . . and with them being fast learners, it has given me more time to sharpen and clean up the moves!”
Planning such dances requires a lot of consideration, especially with the music selection and choreography.
“Naina, the other rally MC, and I want to do something super cool with the audio at the beginning of the rally which I can’t [say] yet!” Abualhaj explains. “So that idea that we’re going to use is playing into how I can take songs that will fit what we want to do. Then, I look at songs that will get a lot of crowd appeal. I like it when the crowd is able to sing along . . . so Tik Tok is helping me out. Yeah, so just more for crowd appeal and then what would have an easier beat so that people who are newer at dancing can catch on to it fast.”
Because of the large number of students interested in performing with Creator’s, it can be different to coordinate practices and ensure every person is well prepared.
“People are so busy that it’s hard to sync schedules,” Abualhaj says. “A lot of times, you get students who really want to perform [but] they just don’t have the time available. Turning people away is really hard for me because I’m big on inclusion and giving everybody an equal chance to like do something or participate. You know, people get doctor’s appointments, it’s hard to show up to everything, and that becomes really difficult when walking a routine because when there’s people missing you can’t gauge the spacing very well.”
Despite the struggles, both choreographers agree that their work is well worth it to see their dances come to fruition.
Miguel says, “Dancing and choreographing Tahitian is something that I have been doing for the school for a while now, ever since freshman year actually. It’s just something I have found a passion in doing. In addition, I get to spend time with some of my closest friends. The people I have chosen to be part of my dance were actually part of my Tahitian group Freshmen year! I sort of see this performance as one of our last ones together and a send off.”
As the COVID-19 pandemic becomes more severe, it is difficult to gauge whether or not students will return to school before summer break begins. This year’s Springfest may be tentative, but the work of those who worked to make it happen remains commendable nonetheless.
Eagle Era 