1. How did you decide the dances, or pick out the songs? Was it difficult to decide on those dances/songs?
The dances that I chose for the gala have a huge significance with my culture. Choosing the music for my dances was the funnest part. For my first Albanian dance, I learned that dance from my Albanian dance school that I go to. And the song with that dance, I loved so much so I did that song as my introduction. For my second dance and third dance it was Greek songs and dances. For my second dance I did Zorbal! It's a classical Greek dance that I loved to express to everyone about. And for the third dance the song was Fotia Me Fotia, choosing this song was very easy because it's one song that all Balkans know that we all dance to in our events and weddings. For my fourth dance, it was a song from Montenegro called Uzicko Kolo. I chose this song because someone from my group wanted to dance with this song and it is a traditional dance for Montenegrin people. The song choice was also so cute and it fit perfectly with our circle dance. The fifth dance, I did a solo with my Greek best friend. I wanted to choose a song that I danced to all the time back when I used to live in Greece so I did Kotsari. Dancing this way with my best friend brought back all my memories from when I used to live in Greece. The fifth dance was really fun to pick because it was our ending so I taught them a whole albanian dance!! Overall, most of these songs really represent the Balkans and are very popular songs that we dance to in our culture!!
2. Teamwork and commitment is a big part of Gala. How were you able to teach the dance to your fellow members (did you practice outside of school? did you record video clips to record, Etc.) ? Were there any troubles you had with your members (attendance issues, ticket issues)?
Teaching my group had its own challenges. I'm a full IB student so I had to manage my time very wisely with the gala. And I was the only captain in my group too. I've been a dancer all my life so I had past experience with how to organize a cultural dance group. I’ve been doing cultural dancing since I was 4 and other outside dancing too. It was luckily easy for me to interpret my skills and help my teammates. For my members on my team, I was very proud of them for coming to almost every practice and putting effort. There were only 2 people that went to dancing schools for their cultures but I still had to teach them how to be in sync with everyone else. I made sure that everyone was comfortable with each other before I taught them everything. They had that bond with each other for the partner dances.I am so proud of my teammates because they always made sure to help each other out if they were lost and always gave respect to me. We did some extra practices in one of my members' houses, so we're all very grateful for her to step and take that chance for us to get sharper with our moves. Those extra practices tied us even closer as a team that we all feel like a family to each other. We didn't really have any ticket issues but since we all have lots of family members we wished that more could’ve come to watch us perform.
3. What part of Gala did you enjoy most?
That's a hard question because I loved everything about it. I loved the whole process and getting to express to my school about my culture. It was so much fun to organize everyone and come to practice to dance to the music we all enjoyed. Some of our practices we would sing on the top of our lungs and it would make all of us laugh. Also, our extra practices brought us even closer as a team. I loved going to see my team outside of school just to hang out with them.We had lots of practices so it felt like they were all my family. Another huge part that I loved was our traditional clothing. The guys in my group paid so much to have their costumes sent from Europe. Just seeing everyone's costumes together as a team brought tears to my eyes because I've created this art. Our clothes were so beautiful that when we walked to school on gala day it felt so powerful to me knowing that i took the step and created this team. The people coming to the gala was also my favorite part. We're all so close with each other that we all hang out even more. This whole process from starting from scratch to now performing with my members was beautiful. They all went from not knowing a lot to now dancing 5 dances that represent four countries in an 8 minute performance. I'm so proud of them and each day that I've spent with them was the best. I can't wait to do this again next year when I'm senior captain!
4. If you could, would you join Gala again? If so, which ones would you be interested in?
I'm definitely going to be captain again of Balkan Gala next year. After 3 years or so, because of me Balkan Gala is finally back and I'm so happy that I've created this team. Coming from someone that was born from Greece and being Albanian, I got to represent my country to my whole school and express how it shaped who I am today! Moreover I loved all of the galas but I think I would've joined the Middle Eastern if i had the time!
5. Do you recommend Gala for new incoming freshmen?
Yes I would !! Gala is so much fun to be a part of, you get to express your culture and even learn more about your culture. You can also put this on your transcript !! And it's just so great to see all cultures come together in one place to represent their countries so it's a huge event that everyone in Yonkers High School looks towards too !!
Interviewed by Faneeza Jahoor
Photos Courtesy of Prince
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