Hmong, K-Pop ensembles diversify through rhythm of dance
Diversity Day danced both in and out of its sixth hour portion courtesy of diverse performances. Hmong dancers and the K-Pop club brought their best performances after months of practice, complete with outfits, music, and attitude.
ESOL teacher Maya Vang advises multiple clubs, leading both the Hmong dancers and K-Pop club performances. For the Hmong club, this was not their first rodeo.
“The Hmong club has had several performances in the district. They perform at Merrill for their multicultural day and also at the Hmong New Year, so we started preparing in October for that group,” she said. “The K-Pop group started last month because we don’t have a lot of time, so the only time they could gather together is during W hour.”
Senior Sheridan Yang is a member of the Hmong dancers and was glad to have a chance to showcase her talent.
“This spreads our culture, makes everybody feel open to expressing their own culture, and we get to have a fun time dancing together,” she said. “The most fun part was everybody cheering us on.”
Senior Juali Vang has danced with the Hmong group for two years now, and appreciates the sense of community found by performing with her friends.
“My favorite part of dancing is expressing my culture and bonding with the other girls, because it brings comfort and something to always look forward to at school,” she said. “Dance fosters closer friendships by all of us learning from each other, and having relatable moments to grow closer.”
Senior Karlotta Lieske, a member of the K-Pop club, performed to groovy songs that had viewers bouncing in their seats.
“I love to dance and I love K-Pop. So put those two together, and I did it,” she said. “I watched a lot of videos of people doing the dances to learn them. I watched dance practices of the actual songs and a lot of my peers helped me.”
Lieske hopes the West community could sense the pure joy radiating from the group of friends on stage.
“Everyone can see how close we are with the amount of effort we put in with our dance moves and the smiles on our faces,” she said. “You can tell we really have fun out there.”
Maya Vang also organized booths outside of the auditorium where different students could showcase their clubs and cultures, which was no small feat.
“It takes a lot of collaboration and a lot of time between the teachers, students and the clubs to gather all their material and research,” she said.
Even though it’s a large time commitment, Maya Vang is dedicated to running multiple clubs because of the benefits it brings to her home.
“I want West to be a diverse school because we have a lot of students from other countries and refugee students. I want other students to know that we do have more than just English speakers at West,” she said. “My goal is to let other students know that we have all these students that you get to meet and learn about their countries and cultures.”
Juali Vang is proud of the positivity her performance can inspire in others.
“The performance benefited the West community by expanding our culture and expressing to other individuals that you don’t need to hide your culture in school,” she said.
K-Pop club has been a safe place for Lieske, and she encourages everyone to give the music a shot and listen with an open mind.
“I really enjoyed my time in this high school due to K-Pop club,” she said. “Just knowing that I have some place to go every week to hang out with people who like the same people I do and the same things I do and listen to the same stuff I do is quite nice.”
Maya Vang appreciates Diversity Day as a way to bring students together.
“The purpose is to be open minded and understand there are students from backgrounds that are different from theirs,” she said. “We are so used to our own culture and our community that we don’t realize we have refugee families here who are struggling and they have families back at home. We have other students who are learning English and have language barriers. We wanted to share that with other students at West.”
by: Abby Furcy
Published April 24, 2023
Oshkosh West Index Volume 119 Issue VII