Eleganza’s 30th Anniversary: Celebrating ‘Ganza’ Past, Present, and Future

On Saturday, April 20, students and — for the first time ever — the Greater Boston community came together to experience Eleganza “Eternal” in the Bright-Landry Hockey Arena. Founded in 1994, the annual fashion-dance show celebrated its 30th anniversary with an emphasis on sustainability and an acknowledgement of its past and future as a show. The show was broken down into three separate scenes: Utopia, East2West, and Akoma. There were also guest performances sprinkled between scenes by Omo Naija X The Wahala Boys, the Harvard Contemporary Collective, and BMF Step.

This year, Eleganza partnered with 12 student designers from Parsons School of Design in New York City in addition to Boston-based designers, an effort spearheaded by Fashion Director Quyen T. Tran ’24.

“I think taking their designs and putting it on a Harvard stage has a very different impact than taking the designs and putting it on some New York stage where that is very much the culture there and people are very used to that messaging,” said Tran on why she wanted to bring designs from Parsons to Harvard.

The show began with opening remarks from Fashion & Publicity Executive Producer Bristol Fales-Hill ’25.

“Our show this year aims at advancing our founders’ vision for a new kind of performance space for all,” Fales-Hill emphasized, “while simultaneously pushing the boundaries of what Eleganza could be.”

The first scene, “Utopia,” choreographed by Liliana C. Price ’25 and Chalisa L. Hoskins ’26, aimed to highlight the journey of Ganza. Broken down into three acts — Lavish, Lore, and Legend — each section was designed to take the audience through different modes of Eleganza. Lavish showcased the higher energy “camp” side of Eleganza — according to Price — while Lore focused on toning it down and bringing “an eerie confidence.” Finally, Legend highlighted the extensive history of Eleganza.

“We just wanted to create a hard hitting hype piece that involved big group numbers, allowed everyone a chance on stage, trying different styles, and honoring these big legendary artists that people are going to sing along to,” Price said. “And kind of end the scene the way Ganza has started and always been — legendary — on campus because it’s such an experience like no other.”

One of the designers for “Utopia,” Ashlyn C. Simpson — who graduated from Parsons School of Design in May 2023 — owns Ashez, a clothing brand, focused on sustainability in design. The pieces she contributed to the show came from a project she did in her junior year at Parsons and were inspired by “the relationship between human and water.” Simpson takes deadstock material, fabric that has a mistake or is unused that would typically be thrown out, and reworks it into clothing. This type of work embodied a common theme among many of this year’s designers, demonstrating a dedicated effort to incorporate sustainability and technology into fashion.

The next performance, Omo Naija X The Wahala Boys, showcased Afro-Caribbean culture with lively, upbeat movement based in African styles of dance. The piece began with a masked person appearing out of the throng of dancers delivering a message playing from the backtrack to “Bring Your A Game.” On cue, the dancers launched into their act without missing a beat.

The second scene, “East2West,” directed by May Jung ’25 and Jamie M. Momoh ’25, aimed to fuse two seemingly opposite genres, K-pop and Afrobeats. Dressed in vintage street-wear style for the Afrobeats dances and preppy “Clueless”-esque fashion for the K-pop songs, the outfits for “East2West” gave notoriety to the styles that were popular when Eleganza was first beginning and have regained popularity in the past few years. The scene aimed to cover a wide audience base and cater to “music enjoyers all over the world.” The bassier Afrobeats dances were balanced out by the softer-toned K-pop numbers, as both styles combined to present the ’90.

The Harvard Contemporary Collective, co-founded by Liliana C. Price ’25, Payton B. Thompson ’25, and Gianna O. Zades ’23, performed their scene, “Siren,” next. Delivering flawless lines and perfectly pointed toes, they moved together in a sea of blue to familiar songs like “Nate Growing Up” by Labrinth and “Praise God” by Kanye West. Price, as co-founder of and dancer in Harvard Contemporary Collective, danced in this guest appearance among many other scenes from the night, reflecting her experience and versatility in style of dance.

After the intermission, BMF Step picked the show back up with synchronized stomping in their matching outfits of workboots, jeans, white T-shirts, and white headbands. Step is a style of dance where dancers use their bodies as instruments to create a beat. This style of dance has deep origins in the African-American community, originally as a form of resistance during slavery, and later popularized by students at HBCUs and in the “Divine Nine,” nine historically Black fraternities and sororities. Throughout their performance, they proudly chanted, “we are so damn smooth.”

To close out the show, “Akoma,” choreographed by Red Hamblin ’27, strived to represent “the beauty of the African diaspora” and the “long and alluring history of Eleganza,” according to the description. The outfits featured everything from shiny silver to stark white pants contrasting against the dark background. These elements all combined to celebrate Black joy through the pillars of Eleganza, dance, and fashion.

Closing remarks were made by Scene & Production Executive Producer Norah R. Ostin ’25 and Finance Executive Producer Melanie M. Volz ’25 as the crowd shuffled out. From the opening to the audience’s exit, the Eleganza 2024 was a vibrant showcase of the eternal allure of dance, music, and passion.

—Staff writer Gillian Selig can be reached at gillian.selig@thecrimson.com.