Multiple student associations said the earlier Culture Night date didn’t provide enough time to learn dances and prepare costumes, so they made extra time to accommodate.
Ryo Funajima, a senior in clarinet performance from Japan, was appointed as the director of culture night for the Japanese Association. He said, “When I first learned about how soon Culture Night would be, I was surprised and worried if we would make it or not. I was in charge last year as well so I know how much time and preparation goes into it. I knew we had to compensate, so we made the dance sequence shorter.”
Pattica San, a freshman in political science from Cambodia, had a similar reaction for the Cambodia Association, which hasn’t existed for the last eight years. He said, “I was freaked out. I was terrified because as a new freshman you don’t expect things to come that fast; plus we don’t have anything to base it on.”
The president of the China Association, Angel Huang, said she initially had a positive reaction. She said, “I thought it was actually good because it wouldn’t be during final exams, so I started to prepare before the spring semester started.”
Huang, a senior in elementary education from China, said they had the costumes, dance choreography, and music already selected before the semester even started. She said, “However when we actually had to do it, we felt that there wasn’t sufficient time because the new semester started and new students came. So there wasn’t enough time for us to finalize who was actually going to join or not so we could actually order the costumes.
“Also, BYUHSA had to take lots of requests for money because all the chapters needed money to get their costumes. I guess it wasn’t enough time for everyone to realize what was going on and plan out everything that needed to be done.”
Jackie Tapia, vice president of Latin America Association, said she felt overwhelmed by the earlier date as part of the presidency. A junior in political science from Washington, Tapia said her chapter has a brand new presidency. In addition to preparing for Culture Night, they had to learn how to plan and coordinate on OrgSync. “It was all brand new to us. It was all thrown at us. BYUHSA said to simplify our performances, but I feel that we can’t do that without lessening the quality.”
Clubs were only allotted two hours of practice time per week as part of a new rule from BYUHSA. Funajima said, “I think two hours a week is enough. Our weeks are already busy with class assignments and work so I think it’s enough time.”
Huang agreed, “I personally think the two hours is okay. I think it is good because since we have less time, people are less laid back. They’re more active to come to practices. So it makes the practice more effective and pushes everyone to work together harder.”
San said two hours a week was not enough. “Our practice time was not good as well. We practiced at 8 p.m., and people still have work at this time. Other clubs practice at 9 or 10 after the PCC closes. Our time is still early so people often can’t make it.” San said he told his members if they aren’t able to make the night practices, he would meet with them one-on-one to teach them the dance steps.
“I’m busy every night teaching our members the dance moves,” San sai. “I want us all to be on the same page. Cambodian dance is not very easy to learn because it takes months and months to absorb. But we are studying a dance that is simple to learn and also entertaining. We express a softness through our movements that take a long time to master,” said San.
Hone Bailey, a local from Laie, was the dance instructor for the Aotearoa/New Zealand Association. He said, “I don’t mind the time frame, but I would have liked to know the time frame much beforehand. It was a last-minute call, and they told us it was a little over a month away. We had planned for it to be in May. We weren’t prepared for that.”
Funajima said the hardest part was getting costumes. “This year we provided a list of the things we needed to BYUHSA, then they provided the money and costumes.” They got the materials to make the costumes two weeks before the event. “We are using some things from last year, but there are new costumes we need. The wives at TVA are helping us a lot.”
Tapia said, “I think we definitely needed more than two months. I think the BYUHSA should have gotten input from the chapter presidencies; perhaps a vote or something. I understand not having it during final exams, but I think it could have happened in mid-May.”
Huang suggested pushing it back two or three weeks so performances could be higher quality and members be less stressed.
Bailey added, “That week will be no sleep… I think the planning of it needed to be more in advance. If they would have let us know, we would have been prepared. It’s doable in that time frame but if you’re not prepared, it makes it really hard.”
San said, “It has been a challenging position for us, but I’m most excited to see my fellow members dancing. We want to convey our culture to the world. It feels good to talk about your identity. I’m also excited to see the other cultures perform.”