On Wednesday, Nov 13, SASPD’s APAC Dance team traveled to the annual APAC Dance festival, held this year in American International School of Guangzhou.

Over the course of five days, dancers from across Asia bonded with friends and host families, met students from other schools, and participated in workshops. The final performance of the season was held on Saturday night.

“Although it was [AISG’s] first time hosting the festival, they were really into it,” says Mary Zhang, junior. She credited its success to the people, “I felt like our team this year is really amazing, and we pulled off a lot…the workshops were really fun as well. They got really good teachers and choreographers from outside the school.”

Charlene Chien, another junior, named the workshops as her favorite part of the experience. “I think the hip hop workshop was my favorite,” she said. “The way [the teacher] taught was very fun and very engaging. There were no mirrors so it was really free to dance without worrying about what you look like.”

“I think a big part of it was the workshop teachers. They were very hyped,” Chien added. “You could tell that they really liked teaching others to dance and sharing the passion. And since they were very into it, so was everyone else and everyone’s energy was really good and positive.”

“This year was honestly my favorite APAC,” said Claire Lu, a senior, on her fourth and last time traveling with APAC Dance. “I love our team so much and we were the most dedicated out of all the years. We put in a lot more work into choreographing a dance that I think we were all happy with.”

Her favorite memory was the performance. “That’s the part where its really fun and you get to feed off the energy from the crowd,” says Lu. “Before the actual performance we performed for the other dancers, like a mini-showing, and the was my favorite part because we were all cheering and cheering for the other dancers. Everyone was really supportive.”

“Because you’re not competing in the performing arts, you get to bond more with other schools, and you come together,” concludes Lu. “I made a lot of friends this year…not just from this school but from other schools as well.”