Roving Reporter: Eastbound

From traditional cultural dance to modern hip-hop, “Eastbound” presented a full array of entertainment to its audience this Saturday. The show, presented by the Asian American Dance Troupe, celebrated another year of dance with over 100 participants, which is one of the largest group of performers to date. The captivating dances and spellbinding precision may have absorbed everyone’s attention, but this Roving Reporter still attempted to converse with performers and audience members.

Ding Zhou ’16, audience member

RR: What was your favorite dance?

Ding: I liked Fade to Black.

RR: Could you dance like that?

Ding: No, I can’t.

RR: How many hours do you think AADT put into this show?

Ding: I assume they’ve been practicing all year.

Vi Nguyen ’15, performer

RR: How much time did you put into this?

Vi: Every week until two weeks before, we had around two to three hours of practice each [week]. Two weeks before the dance, we had around an average of four to five, and we also had a really long dress rehearsal and tech rehearsal.

RR: What was your favorite part of “Eastbound”?

Vi: My favorite part was seeing it come all together at dress rehearsal because we practiced all on our own, so it was really nice to see the progress everyone made.

RR: Did anyone mess up?

Vi: I think a lot of people did…. But I think everyone has fun with it, and because we have fun with it, no one notices and we don’t notice.

Ping Yuan, parent

RR: What brought you all the way from Michigan?

Ping: We just wanted to represent our family and give [our daughter] more support. This is very important.

RR:What have you thought of the show so far?

Ping: It’s very nice, even the little ones [referring to a dance with young performers from Westwood Chinese School].

RR: Has your daughter been dancing since she was that young?

Ping: Yeah, since she was five. She started with ballet.

Melissa C. Lee ’17, audience member

RR: What have you thought of the show so far?

Melissa: It’s been great. I’ve had a lot of friends in the production, and I’ve listened to them talk about AADT, and they’ve worked really hard. It’s really nice to see that all the hard work has become such a great show.

RR: What was your favorite dance so far?

Melissa: The one just now [Hyde]. There was something about the energy.

Roland M. Salatino ’16, MC and performer

RR: Do you think you’re funny?

Roland: I hope so! When I'm writing MC scripts and I think of something that cracks me up, I write it down. Hopefully everyone else likes it too.

RR: What’s the worst part of being an MC?

Roland: The worst part of being an MC is memorizing lines or taping together notecards with the script on them.

RR: What was the most awkward moment in the show?

Roland: The most awkward moment in the show.... I don't know! I had fun with the whole thing. Even the parts where my co-MC got to make fun of me a little were really funny, and I even helped her write some of those parts.

Tina Q. Huang ’18, performer

RR: What was your favorite part of “Eastbound?”

Tina: I think my favorite part of “Eastbound” was being able to show all our friends and family what we’ve been working on for the entire year. Our dance group had really become a little family; it was really awesome to all be on the stage together.