On Mar. 17, the Chinese Honor Society (CHS) held their annual dance competition in the multi-purpose room. After months of planning and practicing, CHS officers and students taking AP Chinese teacher Sandra Huang’s classes put on a spectacular show.

Huang prepared with the CHS officers for months preceding the show in order to ensure that the competition ran smoothly.

“All of my students are required to participate,” Huang said. “I want to encourage the students to take on leadership roles. This also gives them the opportunity to show their creativity. Unlike the Chinese Talent Show in the fall, the students could choose to perform any type of dance in the dance competition.”

Senior Joanne Lin, president of CHS, was one of the dance competition judges. Lin shared how she and her fellow officers organized the event.

“All of the judges had experience in Chinese, Modern or Hip Hop dancing,” Lin said. “These judges were chosen based on their dance experience.”

Lin has been dancing Chinese and modern dance for 6 years now. She incorporated her knowledge and experience of dance to tally up the scores.

“We used a rubric to score their dances,” Lin said. “At the end of the competition, we added up the points and placed the groups by the points earned.”

In total, there were 14 dances performed. Performing a unique dance style, juniors Juho Kim and John Martins placed first in the competition.

“We performed a dance style called popping,” Kim said. “We danced to the song ‘Get it Up’ by Fingazz.”

First to third places were rewarded with cash prizes. Although the prize was a plus, Martins was grateful for something else.

“It was a good experience,” Martins said. “I did not have any previous dance experience, so it was surprising that we won first place. We practiced daily after school, and I am glad all our effort paid off in the end.”

Similarly junior Ilana Inselbuch, leader of the Twice TT group, was proud of her group’s effort. They left her with skills that could be useful in the future.

“We had a lot of fun,” Inselbuch said. “Although we didn’t win, it was a good learning opportunity. I enjoyed teaching the dance to my group and learning with them. As the leader of my group, not only did I learn leadership skills, but I also gained communication skills from this experience.”