The 2024 Festival of Nations performance is now two weeks away, and if it wasn’t evident from the bake sales in the lobby, almost every day, and the cultural music blaring from every corner of the building during rehearsals, it’s crunch time for FON leaders who are eager to get their dancers ready for the big day.
Filipino FON leader Ava Pusing said, “We’ve been working really hard with our new choreographies and holding fundraising events. Rehearsals have been going very smoothly. All of our members are quick learners and are very enthusiastic about learning the new dances.”
Aurelia Liu, a FON leader, said, “I feel like FON is coming more quickly than usual. Maybe it’s because I’m leading this year, but I’m definitely anxious about getting all of my dances ready for the shows.”
Ava is also feeling the pressure to show up for her dancers. “It’s like I have practice every day and think about FON 24/7. It’s tough to have good rehearsals when attendance is patchy because everyone’s busy—even me, which makes being a leader so hard.”
It’s this mixture of nervous energy, pressure, and anticipation that makes the final weeks before the performance both one of the most stressful times of the year for FON members and one of the most memorable times.
Junior Tristin Hall is participating in African American FON, Indo FON, and Hispanic FON. She said she struggles to deal with the time constraints of FON and can’t imagine the commitment leaders have. “I want to go to all my practices, but it’s so hard to make FON a priority with everything I already have to do,” she said.
For others, however, seeing the show get closer to opening night is thrilling.
Sophomore Ebube Ajulu said, “My favorite part of FON is the practices, run-throughs, and seeing everything come together.”
Additionally, freshmen are experiencing their first FON season. Freshman Sophia Chen said, “I think that [FON] is a good way to form connections with your friends and learn cultural dances. I was surprised about how the dances are so different from each other, varying from Chinese Ribbon to Bollywood.”
FON has been a major part of the culture at THHS for years, giving students the opportunity to represent their own culture or explore a new one.
Stressful and time-consuming as it can be, students feel confident that the show will come together well.
“My FON leaders are making sure everyone is practicing diligently. During our rehearsals, they’ve been very encouraging,” said junior Danielis Baez. “We all plan to put our best foot forward during the show.”
