Asian Festival Benefits Japanese Disaster Relief

Ridgewood High School came alive with Asian-infused spirit as students held their annual Asian Festival Benefit in the school’s Campus Center auditorium on Saturday. The event featured an entertaining assortment of Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Korean and Japanese performances.

Tickets, sold at the door, were $5 for adults and high school students, and $3 for middle school and elementary school students. All of the money collected will be donated to Japanese earthquake/tsunami relief. Students and parents also sold plastic wristbands, T-shirts, baked goods and car bumper magnets to raise funds for the Japanese relief effort. As of press time, a final total amount of money raised was not yet available.

The 168 RHS performing students, predominantly of Asian descent with a smattering of Caucasians, entertained the packed auditorium with 16 dances, demonstrations and skits, concluding with a festive fashion show of authentic Asian costumes. 

The program opened with the Chinese Lion Dance, a 1,000-year-old dance meant to shower blessings of wealth and good fortune to the community, in which the performers—manipulating elaborate lion costumes—made their way through the aisles as Chinese maidens threw fortune cookies into the crowd. Other highlights included a Japanese Wadaiko performance in which students played on Omikoshi drum instruments; the fluid and graceful movements of a colorful Korean Fan Dance; and Korean Modern and Filipino Modern dance presentations energized with innovative elements of hip hop, break dancing and other urban “street” moves.  

Performers wowed with impressive feats of fancy footwork in dances such as Filipino Tinikling, the national dance of the Philippines, which consists of two people beating, tapping and sliding bamboo poles on the ground in coordination with dancers who step over and between the poles in a fast-paced dance; their dueling prowess in exciting combat demonstrations such as Kumdo Sparring, a modern Korean martial art form of sword fighting; dexterous Chinese Yo-Yo tricks; and spirited Indian dancing—both traditional and modern—that would do credit to any Bollywood movie and had many audience members swaying in their seats.

“It was a lovely combination of traditional and modern,” said faculty advisor Helen Aslanides, who noted the students created all of the choreography and scenery, while the costumes, props and instruments were provided by generous parent contributions.

The Asian Festival 2011 Leaders were seniors Sarah Oh, Manushi Desai, Andy Lee and Hannah Yang. Student leaders for China were Hannah Yang and Derek Sung; Christine Shigeta, Riki Saito and Emi Ohta for Japan; Sarah Oh, Andy Lee, Yuri Park and Jason Hwang for Korea; Manushi Desai for India; and Ria Martinez and Mike Luansing for Philippines.

“All of the students have worked so hard on this. I am happy they should receive recognition for it,” said Aslanides.

In turn, the students thanked Aslanides as well as the Chinese American Association of Ridgewood, the , and Ridgewood’s Indian, Filipino, Korean and Japanese communities as well as school principal Jack Lorenz, the Cultural Diversity Club, RHSTV and the RHS custodial staff for their support and contributions.

Aslanides, who has been involved with the Asian Festival since it first started 25 years ago and has seen it grow from a mostly Chinese, then Japanese base to now include a larger, more diverse demographic group that reflects RHS’s 14 percent Asian demographics, stated: “I’m very proud of the Ridgewood community. Everyone has worked very hard at being a part of the community and contributing their own special parts to make up a diverse whole.”