From Backstage to Front Stage: Lu​​nar New Year Celebration A Major Undertaking By Trinity Students

Lunar New Year celebration planning committee meeting.
(Photos by Sarah Wysocki)

By Sarah Wysocki

The lights change​d​ from white, to blue, to red. Fans twirl high above the performers' heads. The changing lights highlighted​ different colors of the fans. The dancers move​d​ their fans up and down, creating a colorful wave, astonishing and beautiful.

This is just one of the dazzling performances at the Lunar New Year celebration on Friday. About 700 people, including Trinity students, staff and faculty,​ and San Antonio residents, filled the Laurie Auditorium to watch the show.

All 12 performances were choreographed and performed by Trinity students. These numbers featured art and culture of China, Korea, Japan and Vietnam, countries where the Lunar New Year is celebrated.

Students performed traditional Korean folklore skit, traditional Vietnamese fan dance, traditional Chinese sleeve dance, and Japanese lightstick dance. There was also a martial arts performance mixing the styles of Chinese kung fu and Korean taekwondo.

A show of this scale and quality is a major undertaking of a group of dedicated Trinity students. “I have put in 100 plus hours, and that is just me personally,” said Alex Motter, ​a sophomore ​majoring in business analytics and tech, the head of the planning committee.

The planning started in September 2017,​ with a 15-member planning committee. Most of the members are freshmen and sophomores. Motter hopes that these underclassmen will take over for the next few years to build the program.

The Lunar New Year celebration has been a tradition at Trinity for many years. This year, Motter wanted to expand the scale of the show to exhibit both traditional performances, like a fan dance, and contemporary performances, like a k-pop dance.

The funding of the show mostly relied on allocation from the Student Government Association, which funds various campus events ​with activities fees paid by students, said ​freshman ​Grace Ling, who was in charge of fundraising and finances of the event.

Courtney Justus, a ​senior and ​performer in the k-pop dance medley, said the whole experience had been “lovely” and “that everyone in the dance worked together very well and rehearsals run very smoothly.” Her number started rehearsing in January, for an hour every Saturday.

Asian food tasting after the show.

This was her first time performing in ​the ​Lunar New Year​ show​ and she was “excited for all the people to come and watch the show.”

After the show, the event goers filled the hallway of Laurie Auditorium to enjoy some ​Asian food, such as dumplings, rice noodles, and summer rolls.

Chatters echoed around the place as people buzzed about the show. Many audience members said they “really enjoyed the show​,​” especially the lion dance and the fan dance.

This ​show has grown every year in number of performances and audience. It has become a prominent staple ​of cultural activities here at Trinity University.