Heritage Night auditions begin

The beats of Cuban salsa and reggaeton along with the stomping of the step team and the melody of Indian music are only a few of the sounds that will emanate from the auditorium on Thursday, March 13.  Heritage Night students around AHS are excited to witness this event.

As director, ESOL teacher Georgia Tomisato has been working from five in the morning to seven at night to bring this event to AHS.
“I don’t go home,” said Tomisato.

But she is not the only one working; she has recruited a staff of nine teachers who she affectionately calls the Phenomenal Nine, a play off of one of her favorite films The Magnificent Seven. They take care of the security, ticket sales, programming,  picture/video taping, organizing the volunteers and the cast party, playing music, and keeping track of finances.

A new change could affect the show this year. Tomisato encountered some problems trying to find someone to tape the event for free, so when she could not, she ultimately was forced to pay the Fairfax Art Academy $ 450 to tape it. “I will have to sell 70 DVDs to get my money back,” said Tomisato. Because of this, she had to raise the ticket prices from five dollars to ten.

However, Tomisato is not worried, and is confident that they will get the huge crowd they are expecting.  “It always sells out,” she said. “Every year it sells out.”  It will likely sell out with the AHS students  that are expected to arrive, as well as other members  of the AHS community. Tomisato has even received a letter from one of the superintendents about Heritage Night.

This is Tomisato’s first year of actually directing the event, but in past years she has helped out with the choreography. Even with her experience with dancing, she could not bring herself to be the one of the judges responsible for choosing which groups will have the opportunity to perform at Heritage Night; she felt her opinion would bring in too much bias. “This year was the only year when they have actually brought in guest judges from different dance groups in the area and one man is a guitar player. So we have five judges,” said Tomisato.

Of the 19 groups that auditioned, 14 were chosen to be in the event and five were asked to come back on Monday, February 25. The Ethiopian Dancers were one of the five on this list. Senior Heyla Asrat, who dances in the group, said, “We are going to work hard and practice a lot.”

“I think it’s going to be interesting to see a variety of cultures perform,” said Marano. “I was going to be in it, but my mom didn’t want me to stay after everyday, and these performers do stay after almost everyday trying to perfect their routines.”
Her friend,  junior Lady Morales, who is part of Meno Total, agreed with her. “We’ve been staying from 2:00- 4:30 p.m.”
Like many of the other groups, they are incorporating the more modern dances of their culture, to go along with some traditional dances.

“We are doing a mixture of meringue and reggeaton,” said junior Lucero Andia, also part of Meno Total. She is hoping to make it to the night since her group was told by the judges to try again. Trying to fuse the dances of the old with the new is a difficult process, and many groups have asked for the help of their teachers, like Chicos de la Clave, which is doing a mixture of Cuban salsa and meringue: while they choreographed the salsa, English teacher Jennifer Carey has been helping them perfect their meringue.
 For the groups, finding out the results and who actually made it is a huge relief. “We worked really hard, and now we’re so excited and so nervous at the same time,” said junior Twinkle Mann of Bhangralicious. Making it into Heritage Night is one thing, but being able to calm your nerves to actually perform on stage is another.

However, some seem to love the attention. “I love it when you are on stage and all the lights are on you and everyone is screaming so you feel like a celebrity,” said senior Luis Avila of Chicos de la Clave.