The acoustic hum of guitars softly echoes throughout the auditorium. Bright red fans snap open to the beat of a spirited Chinese instrumental track. K-pop dancers burst into movement, matching the rhythm of the energetic music. All spotlights are pointed to the stage as the audience witnesses the kickoff of a school tradition surpassing 50 years.

Over 1,200 students, faculty members and parents attended the evening Bellaire International Student Association (BISA) Festival on April 17. BISA divided the festival into performances in the auditorium followed by food stalls on Main Street.

“We’re celebrating diversity while also just enjoying life,” senior and BISA Co-President Meadow Lam said. “On Main Street, there’s so many people going around and trying food from different booths — it’s kind of like a blend of all types of people. This is the main school event that does this, and I think it’s awesome to be a part of something that brings this to our community.”

Lam, a four-year member of BISA, has worked behind the scenes for the event every year. The officer team created posters, discussed plans, sent emails and watched rehearsals.

“We split all the officers into three committees — the food, performance and marketing committees,” Lam said. “This helped to allocate responsibilities. There was definitely a lot of stuff that had to be done beforehand, but it all worked out in the end.”

The performances began with an opening from the JROTC Color Guard, who presented the American and Texan flags and played the national anthem for the audience. Afterwards, the BISA team introduced their co-presidents and mentioned the 11 other officers who contributed to the event.

As the third performance of the festival, Chinese Club and Chinese Honor Society presented a fast fan dance. Senior Vivienne Chen has performed fast fan at the BISA Festival for the past three years. This year, Chen taught the dance routine to prepare performers for the festival. Because the performers previously learned the dance for the Chinese New Year performance, they only had to practice once beforehand.

“My favorite part of our performance is the ending pose because our fans create a visual of flowers around us,” Chen said. “I thought it was a really cool way to end the performance. I also really loved the way our fans make a synchronized noise after the music ends.”

Later in the lineup was Bollywood Club, where members performed bhangra and a fusion dance. Sophomore and fusion dance choreographer Maahi Vaswani was responsible for holding practices in the week leading up to the performance. While she was initially concerned about the dancers struggling with coordination, her stress was “relieved” after sending individual feedback to the dancers and seeing the routine again at one of the last rehearsals.

“There was nothing on my mind during the performance except to have fun, show up and be energized,” Vaswani said. “I felt so happy and lucky to be sharing the stage with so many amazing people who’ve worked so hard for this.”

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Ethan Reichek

Freshman Veda Kaushik performs the bhangra dance. Bhangra is a high energy folk dance originating from Punjab.

Vaswani’s favorite part of Bollywood Club’s dance was the ending, where all the dancers gathered and posed together. She said she could see the happiness and sense of relief on everybody’s faces at that moment.

“After the performance, I felt amazing getting so many compliments from everybody and so much love from all my teammates,” Vaswani said. “It truly reminded me what Bollywood Club was made for — to have fun and celebrate our culture.”

Later into the evening, East African Student Association (EASA) presented a fashion show that ended with all the participants in a semicircle taking turns to showcase cultural dances, including shagoye and eskista. Senior and EASA Co-President Betiel Elma performed alongside her peers in the performance.

“I felt very unprepared leading up to the performance because school was sometimes in the way of practice,” Elma said. “But an hour before the performance, I realized that the purpose is to go on the stage and have fun. People can appreciate your culture even if it is not 100% rehearsed because that also takes the fun out of performances. You should just go with the flow because that’s the whole purpose of cultural dances in East Africa.”

To Elma, the most memorable part of the club’s performance was witnessing members “dance out of their heart.”

“Even though we’re in one big school, there’s so much of us that people don’t really know,” Elma said. “When we all got together, it was beautiful to see other peoples’ cultures, how they dance and what they wear.”

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Dhara Agrawal

Seniors and EASA Co-Presidents Aya Aman and Betiel Elma pose during the EASA fashion show. Performers wore Habesha kemis, Nigerian Igbo clothes and other traditional East African clothing.

After a brief 10-minute intermission following German Club’s landler dance, band members played “Talento de Televisión” by Willie Colón. The band, named Bladimir, included performers who played the piano, trumpet, bongos, guitar, shaker and flute. Junior Diego Pineda was the band’s drummer and in charge of selecting the song, instruments and musicians.

“The bassist and I decided we wanted to do this song as a tribute to Willie Colón, who passed away in February,” Pineda said. “It was my first time playing salsa in front of a live audience. In the weeks leading up to BISA, I had to experiment with different instruments and arrangements to find something that worked.”

While listening to and researching the song, Pineda found that Colón was the pioneer of playing trombone in salsa, making playing the piece “that much more special.”

“Willie Colón introducing the trombone in salsa carries a legacy, and I felt the weight of that legacy on stage while performing,” Pineda said. “I think ‘Talento de Television’ was the perfect song to encapsulate that culture because it captured the energy of salsa for the audience to enjoy.”

Freshman and Black Student Association member Nyla Phillips-Lockett gave the only performance without music, presenting a memorized oratorical poem titled “Strength” about Black resistance.

“I felt really positive during my performance because I was confident and in my element,” Phillips-Lockett said. “The audience was very responsive, which motivated me to finish the poem strong.”

In the middle of her poem, Phillips-Lockett paused for dramatic effect while the audience gave her a round of applause. She said this moment felt supportive, allowing her to feel accomplished as the poem drew to a close.

“My favorite part about the festival was not just the food or performing, but also watching everyone else perform and recognizing the work that everyone puts into their respective performances,” Phillips-Lockett said. “It’s something that can’t be ignored.”

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Dhara Agrawal

Phillips-Lockett addresses the audience during her oratorical poem. Phillips-Lockett initially struggled with finding a rhythm for her poem, especially because she wanted “every word to matter.”

To conclude the performances, members of K-Pop Club danced to various songs, including “I Am the Best” by 2NE1, “Gnarly” by KATSEYE, “GO!” by CORTIS and “Like Jennie” by JENNIE.

Senior and K-Pop Club President Jenny Sun has participated in the festival performance for the club since freshman year. This year, she choreographed “Gnarly,” rearranging formations and preparing dancers after school. While her group faced minor setbacks, including performer time constraints, their dance ultimately succeeded.

“It was miraculous how we got it together in the end,” Sun said. “I did not expect this, because at the beginning of the week, we didn’t have formations down.”

The team chose routines based on feasibility and input from each other. For instance, while some dancers did not want to perform “Gnarly” due to its repetitiveness, the majority agreed to include it.

“When the performance ended, I felt really happy and fulfilled,” Sun said. “It was my last year, but I think the crowd was really alive this year. I heard a lot of people cheering my name, which made me feel very honored.”

Once the performances ended, students, faculty members and parents were admitted into the cafeteria to browse and purchase from food booths. The 18 stalls were run by a total of 22 clubs, with many serving cultural cuisines across 12 different countries.

“My favorite part of BISA is trying out all the different foods each culture has to offer,” Chen said. “I’m definitely a huge foodie, so being able to try so many types of dishes from different places was a really fun experience.”

According to Lam, while her last BISA festival required an “extensive amount of time and effort from officers, performers and volunteers,” it brought the community together and allowed people to enjoy themselves for an evening.

“It’s this amazing multicultural celebration that really brings our school together, and it is definitely something I will miss,” Lam said. “On the day of the festival, I was really looking forward to spending this last event with everyone else and embracing how diverse our school community is.”

Guitarists strum the final chord of their musical composition, leaving a harmonious melody ringing in the ears of the audience. Chinese dancers in their final formation arrange their fans to create a popping visual of blooming red flowers. K-pop performers strike their ending pose, breaths shallow as they listen to the clamoring of claps and whistles from awestruck friends and family. A night of music and movement transforms into an unforgettable memory of the school’s lasting cultural legacy.

Keep up with future BISA meetings and events through its Instagram or Remind @bisaclub.