Culture Show 2002 receives poor audience reception

The cover page of last Saturday night's Culture Show 2002 program proudly proclaimed the Bob Marley lyrics, "One love, one heart, let's get together and feel all right." That's the philosophy behind the festivities that constitute CultureFest at Hopkins; it is meant to unite students of various ethnic backgrounds in an annual celebration of diversity. The Shriver auditorium was nearly filled on Saturday night, as students flocked to see performances by various ethnic and dance groups on campus.

In retrospect, the event had its ups and downs and was only partially successful in creating the sense of unity and togetherness originally intended. Part of the purpose of CultureFest is to educate students of the traditions of the various cultures present here at Hopkins. The audience, however, mainly consisted of students who were simply friends of the performers, often of the same ethnicity. The Culture Show did little to attract viewers whose ethnicity was not represented onstage. That is, it seemed that few people attended solely in order to get a taste of the cultural diversity on campus and learn about the practices of these various cultures.

The night began with an act that represented all of the performing groups in the program. Choreographed by Jennifer Saito, the opening act was organized shortly before the Culture Show in several last minute rehearsals. Although the idea of introducing all of the performers at the start of the show was a good one, the resulting performance was unpolished and lacked the feeling of excitement it should have provoked. Had the choreography been taught in a timelier manner, the performance might have been more coordinated, thereby garnering more enthusiasm from the audience.

The rest of the event consisted of a wide range of acts, differing in number of participants, music styles and, most importantly, audience reception. Interspersed between the larger performing groups, soloists took part in cultural demonstrations as well. Pomin Yeung played a Chinese instrumental piece using the Er-Hu, a two-stringed instrument developed by tribal folk in northern Asia. The piece, entitled "Twin Springs Reflecting the Moon," was a somber ballad played with marked emotion and sincerity by Yeung. The next soloist, Preeti Balakrishnan, displayed equal talent in her performance of an Indian dance called "Thilana." Her stiff, rhythmic movements were obviously the product of much rehearsal. Finally, Jennifer Saito performed a Chinese dance titled "Dai Girl," in which she fluttered and floated gracefully across the stage, relying on both facial expression and footwork to portray a girl of the Dai minority group in the Yunan province.

Unfortunately, the three solo performers were probably the most under-appreciated acts of the night. Unlike other more large-scale performances, these acts were not meant to rouse the crowd; they were geared primarily towards displaying time-honored cultural traditions, which the audience seemed to have difficulty embracing. This is not to say that the performers lacked talent in any way. Rather, it is a reflection of an audience unable to maintain interest in more singular, long-established expressions of culture. Attendee Nina Haldipur commented that dances like Balakrishnan's "Thilana" require "a great deal of skill that comes only from a lot of practice. I think it's really hard for people watching to pay attention to all of the subtle, intricate details that go into a performance like that."

Other more crowd-pleasing acts included consecutive performances from Lambda Phi Epsilon, JOSH and the Ladybirds. Members of the Lambda fraternity performed a step routine complete with the unique use of classroom desks and wooden sticks for sound effects. They were impressively synchronized and had clearly spent much time learning their routines. The Lambda boys were followed onstage by the ten female members of JOSH, Hopkins' newest all-girl cultural dance troupe. Wearing flashy black and red costumes accompanied by gold jewelry worn about the head, these girls wowed the audience, smartly blending hip-hop and Indian dance together. Afterwards, the equally compelling Ladybirds took the stage, led by student choreographers Chrissy Allen and Jessie Parsons. Their moves were skillfully choreographed to a medley of beats taken from samples of music from both Michael and Janet Jackson.

The program also included an interesting demonstration of Soo Bahk Do, the oldest form of Korean martial arts. The audience was engrossed as the two students onstage lunged at each other in an artificial display of aggression, cheering after each round of blows. The crowd's enraptured involvement during this performance was oddly unsettling. I couldn't help but wonder if they were exhibiting a lack of ability to take the martial arts presentation seriously. This was certainly not the fault of the performers, who remained solemn and poised throughout. Rather, it was another confirmation of the audience's striking incapacity to honor the oldest, most classical forms of cultural traditions.

In this respect, despite a multitude of very talented performances, Culture Show 2002 unfortunately failed in attempting to bridge the gaps between mutually unfamiliar cultures.