Annual Big Assembly Day lights up the stage with holiday performances
Performing arts groups across all three campuses took the stage in the annual Big Assembly Day in the Patil Theater on Friday.
The upper school orchestra and jazz band commenced the holiday spirit with their yearly rendition of “Sleigh Ride,” conducted by sophomore Lucas Wu. Orchestra director Jaco Wong dressed up as Charlie Brown from Peanuts and made a special guest appearance with a stuffed Snoopy on stage mid-song. Trumpet players, wearing horse hats, made their way to the front of the stage to play the famed horse neigh at the end of the piece.
“Orchestra performed maybe one of the best “Sleigh Ride”s ever this year,” percussionist Vivian Wu (11) said. “It sounded a lot less nervous and more whimsical. Even though we were cohesive, individual instruments did have their time to shine.”
Between performances, Downbeat and Dance Fusion members introduced the upcoming stages with skits and holiday-themed jokes.
Bucknall Choir sang “The Twelve Days of Christmas” and held props that matched each lyric, like large golden rings and turtle dove backpacks. Showstoppers danced in red dresses to “Malagueña Salerosa” by Miguel Aceves Mejía. Dolce Voce performed “All Is Found” from Frozen 2, while Rhapsody sang and danced to “Frozen Heart” from Frozen, ending their performance with sophomore Aditya Sathyanarayanan trapped in an inflatable ice cube prop.
“I really liked the Rhapsody performance, especially watching Aditya perform and come out of that ice cube,” attendee Yimo Xie (10) said. “That was very interesting, and I could sense the artistic directions behind it. It made me really happy to see my friends perform.”
Following High Voltage’s dance to a mix of Christmas songs, including “Ice Ice Baby,” Concert Choir sang a rendition of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” Kinetic Krew dazzled the audience with a high-energy hip-hop routine to a remix of “Start a Riot” by Duckworth and Shaboozey and “All I Want For Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey. Harmonics performed ”Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” with one of the members dressed as a Christmas tree.
Kinetic Krew member Tvishi Jaiswal (9) reflected on how the event felt more lively compared to the high school dance team in middle school.
“Being on this team with high schoolers, especially in four different grades, is a lot of fun to connect with different people,” Tvishi said. “BAD brings people of the performing arts together and really just combines all of our energy on one stage. Going to all the campuses and seeing all the different grades and the other performances is really cool.”
Capriccio performed “White Winter Hymnal,” creating a rhythm through body percussion. In their humorous rendition of “Good King Kong Looked Out,” they used kazoos to mimic honking sounds, and senior Lucy Campisi acted as the Good King Kong, wearing a pig nose and cat ears, and mimed smelling and hearing. Harker Dance Company followed with a jazz routine partially choreographed by juniors captain Hannah Jiang, Isabelle Niu and Chelsea Xie to “Santa is Real” by Meghan Trainor.
“We also had to reorganize formations, and it was definitely a learning experience for all of the choreographers,” Isabelle said. “In terms of HDC performances, this was all of our first time choreographing a routine for the team. The teamwork between the HDC juniors was very cooperative, and we were really bouncing off of each other’s ideas. It really grew from when we first learned it in camp to when we performed it on stage on Friday.”
Dance Fusion danced to Kelly Clarkson’s “Christmas Isn’t Canceled (Just You)” in holiday-themed pajamas. Downbeat capped off the assembly with acapella performances of “Don’t You Worry About A Thing” and the Downbeat traditional song “Deck The Halls.” As a heartwarming finale, all of the narrators gathered on stage to take the annual group selfie on a digital camera.