Now Introducing: The Lunar Lotuses
The Lincoln East Lunar Lotuses pose with the ACCC Cultural Program Coordinator, Rebecca Reinhardt, for a picture after their performance at the Lincoln Room of the Lancaster Event Center on Sunday, Feb. 25, 2018. Left to Right: Elise Benson (9), Angelina Nahorny (11), Angel Trinh (12), Beth Nipper (10), Rebecca Reinhardt, Yiling Zuo (10), and Ava Winjum(10). [Member Chloe Weakly (10) is not pictured]. Photo Courtesy of Rebecca Reinhardt.
Lincoln East’s Chinese Dance Team, the Lunar Lotuses, ended their busy performance season by dancing at the Asian Community and Cultural Center’s Lunar New Year Celebration on Sunday, Feb. 25, 2018, in the Lincoln Room of the Lancaster Event Center.
The ACCC has been organizing a Lunar New Year Celebration for four years. They invited many diverse groups–namely the DMNV and JingMoTong Lion Dance groups, the Karen Youth traditional dance group, and the Lunar Lotuses– to perform and celebrate the new year with over 1000 people that attended the event throughout the day.
The Lunar Lotuses presented a five minute dance that was choreographed by team leader, Angelina Nahorny (11), called the Elements Dance. The dance consists of four segments–the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, and the Sea– with four different props–fans, umbrellas, tea lights, and ribbons, respectively.
The Lunar Lotuses began practicing the dance in September 2017 for the ACCC’s fall event, the Harvest Moon Festival. With only a month to prepare, the group only learned the Sun and the Moon segments for the initial performance. They spent the following winter months by learning and perfecting the rest of the dance before their busy season in February, the time surrounding Lunar New Year.
Throughout the month, the Lunar Lotuses were invited by various schools and organizations to celebrate diversity by performing at various events, such as Heritage Night at Adams Elementary, the Lunar New Year Celebration Party at Bennett Martin Public Library, and the Lincoln Chinese Cultural Association Spring Festival Gala at Scott Middle School.
The Chinese dance team formed last school year by students who studied Chinese at East, but they opened up auditions to the entire school this year. The team still mostly consists of students from the Chinese class, with only one member that isn’t learning the language. The original Lunar Lotuses only had three or four performances in February 2017 while the current team had six performances around the Lunar New Year, in addition to two performances they had in October. With a couple more performances in the final months of the school year, the team will well surpass the number of performances they had last year.
“I am so happy that the Lunar Lotuses have managed to double our performance number with around nine performances this school year,” said Nahorny. “I am excited to see what next year will be like and I hope that we will gain some new people!”
The Lunar Lotuses will spend the remainder of the school year by preparing for their final performances and brainstorming ideas for the team next year. Their goals include finding new members and organizing a fundraiser or two. The team has grown considerably in its second year and the members hope it will continue.
Follow the Lunar Lotuses on Facebook and Instagram.
