When: 4/22/2022 Friday
Where: Las Alamitos Elementary School
At Las Alamitos, SKZ performed at the school. The performance was great, and many people loved it. Many people in the audience and the performers loved this experience.
Who Participated：
Jillian Ehrlich, Kathy Chen, Ryan Qin, Kevin Ji, Gavin Liu, Justin Lai, Ocean Fleskes, Vandan Patel, Ethan Carr, Dakota Rockhill
What was Performed?
We performed Shaolin Kungfu. Most communities know about Kungfu but don’t know that it comes in many practices and many forms. The style in which we teach and share with others is Shaolin Kungfu. Shaolin Kungfu is a long running practice with a history spanning over 1500 years. Many of our students practice with the desire of visiting or re-visiting the Shaolin Temple to see the roots of what they’ve been practicing.
Audience Feeback:
The audience was openly excited to see our performers. Many of them were shaking with excitement to see people within the community that they know or recognize performing something they’ve never seen before. To many others, this was a brand-new experience for them. Those people were frozen in awe to see performance arts that took years of practice to master. Overall, everyone was quite excited to see our performance and the reception was overwhelmingly positive.
Sharing Shaolin Culture:
Our goal is to share Shaolin Culture throughout the community and the world. After a performance, if just a single person thinks “I want to do that too,” than the performance was a success. That one student will learn about the history, practice and culture of Shaolin Kungfu and will possibly want to share their experiences with others as well. Shaolin Kungfu isn’t just a martial art, it’s a lifestyle that encourages you to work hard at everything you do. It’s a sense of community to help others who are curious and willing.
Thanks to the parents for volunteering to carpool:
Without your participation, we would not have had such a successful performance at Los Alamitos. Your contribution has allowed us to spread and share Chinese & Kungfu culture with an unknowing community wishing to become more educated. We will continue to work harder and if there are other events that we can perform for, make sure to keep us informed. Any opportunity that our students have to grow helps!
Student Feedback:
Ethan: Overall, the performance went really well. There were some mistakes but that’s okay. If you keep on pushing through with confidence, the audience will not know the difference.
Vandan: The performance went very well. We performed maybe not to the best of our abilities but it’s important that we all use this experience to improve. We have to look back and think, “I messed up at this part of my form so I’m going to practice it over and over again. Until I can do it without thinking about it.” This is how you know that you fully understand a form.
Justin: I was really proud of everyone who participated. If an event like this pops-up again, I would highly recommend participating and going out there even if you’re not fully confident in your skills. If you can do this than every time you do something challenging in the future, you’ll have more confidence going into it.
Student/Audience:
Leo: I’ve been to these multi-cultural fairs before up until the 3rd grade. I’ve seen the Kungfu performances in the years before. I think they’re really impressive to people who’ve never experienced China’s culture and how amazing it can be.
