Also on Saturday March 18 was Choom Boom’s first showcase. I have been a part of the Bi-Co’s one and only K-Pop dance club since my first year, and it’s amazing to see how far we have come as a group. Having our own showcase was only just a dream maybe 2 years ago. As more students joined the club, we gained more establishment as a dance group.

*Can you spot me? Hint: I curled my hair and I’m wearing black shorts.

The program contained a total of 16 dances, 3 of which were performed by guest dance groups (Pulso Latino, Afreen, and Bounce). A nice variety of K-Pop styles were also represented, from cutesy, to sexy, to powerful, masculine, and dubstep. I performed in just two dances: Bang! by After School and Navillera by G-friend (which we also performed at the Fall Student Dance Concert last semester). I love Choom Boom so much that I would have joined more dances if I had time, but I’ve been dancing in so many other dances that I couldn’t commit to more rehearsal time.

It still has not hit me that that was my last time performing with Choom Boom. I truly believe Choom Boom is one of the most inclusive spaces on campus. We do not even hold auditions! Anyone is welcome. The mission is that anyone can dance. All you have to do is show up and practice! Some of my closest friends I have made were through Choom Boom. I happen to be the only consistent senior in Choom Boom, but I love my upperclass and underclass Choomies.

After the showcase, I helped clean up a bit before the after party at Apartment 50. I had never been to the Music and Arts apartment at the Haverford Apartments. It’s a pretty spacious, well decorated place. There’s also a band set up and lounge couches so I can imagine a lot of concerts and parties happen there.

Of course, the afterparty music was K-Pop. It seemed like everybody on the executive board of Choom Boom knew every song and every corresponding dance. I don’t follow K-Pop as closely as I used to. That did not stop me from having fun and celebrating the end of a very successful first showcase. Ironically, the K-Pop industry is controversially exclusive and discriminatory, with unreal beauty standards, colorism, and occasional cultural appropriation, but I still stand by my claim that the students in Choom Boom are some of the nicest people you will meet (and they dance well too!).

Photos and videos of the showcase will be released soon…