UMD students bring diversity to Kollaboration
Tags: Kollaboration, Music, Talent, Dance

[caption id=”attachment_1679" align=”alignleft” width=”199" caption=”Graduate Emily Barnes and senior Alec Zhang won second place at this year’s Kollaboration D.C. with their powerful balldancing moves.

Photo by Ryan Alphonso”]

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Powerful. Extreme talent. The future.

These were the words that judges, guests and contestants used to describe Kollaboration, a movement started nearly 10 years ago by the non-profit organization to aim the limelight on young Asian Pacific Americans. Just last year, the organization took the talent competition to the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area and started http://kollaborationdc.org/

Perhaps the best way to sum up the night is with the word “diversity.”

“We had so much diversity this year,” said Kollaboration’s executive director Christian Oh. “We got everything from ballroom dance to contemporary dance to South Asian dance, and then we had a band [and] different styles of singers.”

Hosted by comedian Jen Kwok and Kollaboration’s executive producer and CEO, Roy Choi, the second annual competition brought together a pool of talents, from singer-songwriters like first place winner Lumi Bustamante, whose powerful vocals vibrated throughout the theatre, and third place winner newly formed band Fallworth, whose unique mix of rock, classical piano and techno-centric beats made a deep impression on guest judge Richard On of American rock band O.A.R.

The event was held at the University of the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C. Sept. 17.

Of the contestants, two particular groups hailed from this university and brought both competition and variety.

Maryland graduate Emily Barnes and senior accounting and information systems double major Alec Zhang turned the stage into a spectacle with their powerful and evidently well-prepared classical ballroom dancing. Dancing to songs like The Police’s popular hit, “Roxanne,” the duo impressed judges with their swift movements and originality, earning themselves second place in the competition.

The most impressed was guest judge Dana Tai Soon Burgess, who is the director of his own premier contemporary dance company in Washington, D.C. and also the chair of theater and dance at George Washington University.

“I was really thinking about the amount of time they have already invested in their art form and how far they had already grown within it,” he said. “They had a very crisp, clean style; they were very passionate. They had a beautiful sense of performance quality.”

For the pair, Kollaboration also brought them a different kind of reward. “It showcases the diversity of talents within the Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders….” Zhang said. “It’s just nice that we’re able to come together and perform what we’re really passionate for.”

The university’s own Indian classical dance team also brought something new and unique to the table. As a South Asian American team, Moksha amazed the audience with their cultural dance routine, which told the story of “Alice in Wonderland ” and her search for self .

For the six dance members, Kollaboration provided a different kind of platform to express their art and an opportunity to draw interest from a completely different crowd of spectators.

“The people who usually come out to our shows have been kind of exposed to [our dance] at some point or another,” said Moksha captain Ramya Tallapragade. “In Kollaboration, it’s a whole different community; it’s outside of our campus and the Indian community, so we wanted to make sure that the way we performed it would not only appeal to them but also interest them in enough to want to follow us in the future.”

Kollaboration’s efforts from the start has always been about empowering young APA entertainers and the event did nothing less of that. “We had an outpour of support… and it shows that people want to see more Asian Americans in the arts,” Oh said. ‘And that’s what Kollaboration goals have been from day one.”

Dr. Larry Shinagawa from the university’s Asian American Studies department attended the show and was especially proud of wide range of cultural backgrounds. “They are bringing in more representation, especially from the South Asian community and also the Filipino American experience as well…” he said. “Young people are our future; we need to see them become engage with the art and culture and Asian experiences, too and this is great.”

Despite such a big diversity, the contestants were able to find a common ground among themselves.

“We’re very similar in that we all have a passion for something,” Zhang said.