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Piedmont Hills Cultural Show Fundraises For Tsunami Victims |
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Written by Angela Thinda (Legend)
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Thursday, 17 February 2005 |
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SAN JOSE, Calif. - The L-Building of Piedmont Hills High School was jamming with Vietnamese culture on the night of Sat., Feb. 6 as VSA and VASFIC put together a night full of cultural performances including everything from a live band, singing and dancing to a fashion show and a game of musical chairs with the audience members. The two clubs decided to put together a cultural show as a fundraiser to help raise money for tsunami relief.
 Piedmont Hills High School VSA & VASFIC Culture Show - Flower Dance (from Piedmont Hills Legend)
“We made close to $1000 and all the proceeds are going to tsunami relief efforts.”
Performing for a full house, Piedmont Hills students invited students from Milpitas, Yerba Buena and Independence to come together to show off their culture for students and family members.
“I thought they did a great job; it really brought everyone together,” said Linh Tang, whose daughter Mindy participated in the show.
The night started with the Vietnamese National Anthem. From there, the host for the evening, Tu Duong took over. “It was a lot of fun being the emcee for the show; it was a great experience,” said Tu.
The opening act was a duet performed by Piedmont Hills juniors Thuy Nguyen and Hien Huynh. Following the girls was another song performed by Tuan Phan from Independence who received an enthusiastic response from the excited audience.
“I was surprised at how many people were there,” said Tuan of the turnout. “I had a lot of fun performing for so many people.”
One of the many highlights of the evening was the fashion show displaying various Vietnamese outfits, accompanied by a musical selection performed by Vinh Tien, Tuan Nguyen and Phuc Vuong from Yerba Buena. “Everyone had a great time; all the performances were really good,” said Vinh.
Organizers of the show tried to keep the show lively for the audience by having several acts in which audience members got to participate. Audience members tried solving riddles, played a game of musical chairs and a singing game that tested their knowledge of songs containing the word love.
“I thought it was a pretty good idea to get the audience to play musical chairs. It kept them from getting bored,” said senior Khang Nguyen, winner of musical chairs.
The show included several group dances. VSA performed two delightful group dances, including the ever popular flower dance. VASFIC members lit the darkened L-Building with blue lights as they danced a traditional candle dance. Students from Milpitas High School graced the stage with a hat dance performed to a catchy Vietnamese song.
Although there were some technical difficulties with several dance groups’ music, they managed to finish their dances with grace and elegance.
“I thought it was bad that they didn’t test the music before hand. But overall, it was good that we didn’t give up and still got to perform,” explained junior Tiffany Vo after improvising during the flower dance.
VSA Adviser Paul Landshof was also in attendance and was greatly impressed with the turnout of the student-organized show.
“It was a good cultural experience for our students. There were many students from other schools as well as many community members, so it was really an East Side event,” Mr. Landshof pointed out. |
