Culture Show in numbers and images
by Thao Nguyen ’15
On Nov. 10, 2012, the ninth annual Culture Show showcased Cornell’s diverse and talented students. Hosted by the student group Eyes of the World, the evening was full of color, music, fun…and impressive numbers.
265 seats filled: The 265-seat Kimmel Theater was filled up 10 minutes before the show. Traditionally taking place during Family Weekend, Culture Show has become one of the biggest events on campus, attracting local residents and family members, as well as the campus community.
2 hours, 27 cultures: Culture Show performers represented 27 different cultures from around the world, including Vietnam, Mexico, Hawaii, France, Mongolia, Burma, Brazil, and others.
20 acts: Songs, dances, poems, martial arts, monologues –20 performances in all.
8 bamboo poles, 16 bare feet: Bamboo dance, a combined Filipino and Vietnamese traditional folk dance, was one of the most impressive performances of the night. Dancers skillfully maneuvered between clicking bamboo poles, whose sound resembled singing birds.
12 Betas: Twelve members of Beta Psi Eta, a multicultural sorority, presented a poem about their different backgrounds and how they all came together at Cornell.
1 flash mob, 60 dancers: Culture Show this year surprised the audience with Cornell’s biggest flash mob. At the end of the show, all 60 performers of the night suddenly gathered on stage and danced to Gangnam Style, a popular and catchy Korean pop song.
12 hours of practice/performance (on average): Contributing to the success of Culture Show, each group spent many hours choreographing, practicing, rehearsing; most started more than one month prior to the show.
“It is wonderful to see how a small campus like this can have the diversity that it has,” said Keith Moore, father of sophomore Zeta Moore.
“What Culture Show does is to show how much diversity there is,” said sophomore Joseph Roberti. “Although there are hundreds of students [at Cornell] classified as Asians, they all have their own distinct cultures, and it is the same with other ethnic groups.”
