A winter tradition at Townsend Harris sees students bonding after school through sharing their culture, learning dances, playing instruments, and waving flags in preparation for Festival of Nations (FON), an event where students can display their culture proudly for the whole school to see. The Chinese Contortion FON represents the Chinese student body at THHS in a unique way through their unique combination of Chinese dances and passion.
Chinese contortion dance is a traditional art form that combines extreme flexibility, acrobatic work, and graceful movements. Performers bend, twist, and balance their bodies in seemingly impossible positions.
Freshman Claire Huang, a member of the Chinese Contortion FON, said “Our dances are a fusion of traditional and contemporary, which makes it special.”
While there are several other Chinese FONs at THHS, according to members, the event would be incomplete without Chinese Contortion.
Assistant principal of organization and FON advisor Ellen Fee said, “Each group highlights a unique facet of a culture through an original and creative dance style. Even within Chinese culture alone, there is tremendous richness and variety. Each FON group showcases a different aspect of a culture in a new and creative dance style.”
Senior Bianca Chen, a leader and choreographer for Chinese Contortion, said she believes the most important thing is “as long as these kids are having fun, they can just work together and bring the vision of our dance.”
According to her, the performance is not only focused on dancing. Cultural roots that go into the dances that the movements stem from are very important. “I actually showed my mom part of the dance yesterday and she was really happy to see me dancing to Chinese music again, because it’s something I haven’t done in a really long time,” said Bianca. “She’s happy to see me embracing my Chinese culture.”
Although the Chinese Contortion FON centers primarily around dance, the new addition to the program is impactful to students not performing as well as the members. Sophomore Safir Uddin said, “having multiple FONs means the audience can explore different aspects of the culture.”
“With [different kinds of] Chinese FONs, students from all different cultures can be in any kind of FON they want, representing what they are proud of and also being included in a school activity,” said sophomore Zackary Ekwaneen.
