David BrodyThe year of the rooster arrived with a flourish Friday and Saturday nights with this year’s Chinese New Year Festival production-an annual cultural performance that marks one of the oldest and most important festivals in China.
According to CNYF coordinators Katrina Yuen and Tina Ho, this year’s show nearly sold out Friday with only around five seats not filled. Saturday’s show was an official sellout.
“Everyone was excited about the sellout,” said Yuen. “We consider both nights to be sellouts. I don’t think CNYF has ever sold that many tickets before.”
CNYF contained twelve dances and a skit. Dance numbers included the hip-hop, ribbon, yo-yo, martial arts and lantern dances.
“This year we worked hard to integrate the dances into the skits. In the past the performance was choppier, but we worked to make it flow better this year,” said Yuen.
On top of coordinating the performance and a banquet prior to Saturday night’s show, this year’s executive board also faced a budget shortfall. Initially Student Union’s Treasury branch was concerned about the status of CNYF, which had previously appealed to separate from the Chinese Students Association. In the end, Treasury approved a $3,380 budget appeal for the group.
While the coordinators noted that the budgetary concerns made this year’s production slightly more stressful, everyone pulled together to make the show a success.
“He learned to improvise and use the best of the resources we had,” said Ho. “Everything came out fine in the end and we were able to pull through.”
The fundraising issues did not dampen the mood at the performances. Crowd-favorite dances included male comedy and martial arts.
Participants and audience members alike were pleased with the performance and the hard work of the executive committee.
“I felt like this was a real continuation this year. The script was better this year. I’d like to see even more next year,” said junior David Lo.
A banquet was also held before Saturday night’s show for the cast and other guests. According to Yuen, the banquet was also close to being a sellout event.
Both Yuen and Ho said that this year’s experience was different for them now that they held a leadership role. Both had danced in previous productions, and while they found their coordinator roles stressful, both had fun and feel proud of the show.
“It’s amazing to see that many people coming together. It was worth all the time we invested,” said Ho.