Sweeney Concert Hall was awash with first chatter, then music, then the supportive cheers of the audience when the Asian Student Association (ASA) and Korean Student Association (KSA) started their annual Asian Culture Show (ACS) Saturday, Oct. 26. A staple of Family Weekend, the event highlighted the many talented Asian cultural dance and music acts within the Five College Consortium and beyond.
The event kicked off with SC Masti, who describe themselves as “a dance team that fuses different styles of South Asian and Western dance.” Featuring popular Bollywood hits like “Akh Lad Jave” and “First Class” as well as Western pop songs “7 Rings” and “Taki Taki,” the performers seamlessly integrated both classical- and hip hop-inspired dance for a high-energy, entertaining opener to the show.
Later, newly-formed Japanese rock (or J-rock) band Seiji Zero earned perhaps the biggest reaction of the night with their debut performance. Members Yena Li ’21, Glenda Perez ’21, Alexis Kilayko ’21, and Chris Tan ’21 played moody, loud covers of “Wherever You Are” by ONE OK ROCK and “Glamorous Sky” by Mika Nakashima, exhibiting impressive skill for a new band. The crowd boisterously expressed their appreciation throughout, and by the end of the set they were waving their arms to the music, cell phone flashlights arcing through the air.
Students in the audience, like Naomi ’21, Aboni ’21 and Rocio ’21, enjoyed supporting the high-energy acts. Aboni called the event “explosive,” mentioning that she has attended ACS every year she’s been at Smith. When asked how this year’s show compared, she said, “I feel like this is one of the bigger performances. I really like it. It’s really fun.”
Part of the fun, they said, was cheering on friends in almost every performance. “It’s really cool to see what our classmates do. I didn’t know that some people dance,” said Rocio.
According to Hyana Kang ’22, KSA co-chair, 17 acts originally auditioned, and 13 acts appeared in the final show. They represented everything from classical Indian dance to K-pop to acoustic covers of anime anthems — and many other things in between.
ACS featured not only Smith acts, but also groups from the Five Colleges and beyond. Smith, Mount Holyoke, UMass and other northeastern colleges contributed a total of four K-pop dance groups to the event. Each performance was a medley of small groups dancing and lip syncing to recent K-pop hits like “Violeta” by IZ*ONE, “Snapping” by CHUNG HA, and “Miroh” by Stray Kids. Between every group’s enviable swagger and impressive choreography, their impersonations took on a pop star status of their own.
UMass group TASC gave another notable performance. TASC is dedicated to promoting awareness of Asian culture and featured lion dancing and diabolo (similar to a yo-yo) in their show.
Two TASC members controlled the lion, one handling the blinking eyes and movable mouth and the other controlling the hind legs. Drums, gongs and cymbals accompanied the dancing creature as it slinked around the stage and interacted with the audience, taking oranges into its mouth and throwing them out into the front rows and even exiting the stage to dance with viewers in their seats.
The diabolo performance came immediately after and kept audience members just as enthralled, awed by the performers’ acrobatic feats of throwing the diabolos up into the air and transferring the axles from one performer’s string to another.
For audience members Soumya and Suresh Bharadwaj, parents of SC Masti performer Meghana Bharadwaj ‘23, ASC was an opportunity to see their daughter dance since coming to Smith. But they also appreciated the show as a whole for its multiculturalism and the opportunity to see people embrace cultures that aren’t their own.
Soumya enjoyed the variety of acts that represented a wide range of Asian cultures. “I’m having a lot of fun. I liked the variety. They covered a lot of different cultures.”
Suresh added that he appreciated seeing students from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds, including non-Asian cultures, performing in the acts: “It was nice to see everybody participating in all the dances from different colleges, from different places across cultures. They’re learning new dance forms, something that they’re not familiar with, and then dancing them. That’s really nice to see, refreshing,” he said.
As the event started, Kang and Courney Lo ’22, ASA chair, said that they hoped that ACS would “celebrate different Asian cultures through performance.” In addition to the events described above, ACS featured solo pop performances by Latisha Rosabelle ‘22 and Luna Wang ‘23; a couple set by UMass student Austin and Mount Holyoke student Nina; Odissi and other traditional dance forms by the Indian Classical Dance Society; Bhangra, performed by the Mount Holyoke group Raunak Bhangra; and a multi-instrumental performance of a song from the anime “Carole and Tuesday.”
Between 13 acts, the various groups treated the audience to a mix of Western and Eastern pop, traditional and modern dance forms, group dance and solo singing performances, representing the Five College Consortium and beyond. Between that variety and the crowd’s energetic response, it suggests that the Asian Culture Show met its goal of showcasing the talent of regional student groups and cultivating an appreciation for Asian cultural forms among the larger student body with resounding success.
