Chinese Dance Club goes overseas to economize

On a Friday afternoon, five girls chatted and waited, mostly shivered, outside the choir room. Two of them wore gym shorts and others had on sweatpants or tights. At almost 3:30 p.m., biology teacher Lani Griffin arrived and the girls — now about ten of them — streamed into the choir mirror room, perhaps one of the most hidden locales on campus.

Behind closed doors, the 12-member Chinese Dance Club has been practicing for an hour and a half every Friday since the beginning of the school year. An intimate group, the members of Chinese Dance Club bond easily, which benefited their dancing. However, the small size ran into a brick wall due to its unfavorably small amount of funding. Fundraising on Club Day only did so much, since Chinese Dance Club does not receive as much publicity as the more popular dance teams like Bhangra. Also, the club does not have a large money account like the more prominent clubs which have roll-over funds from the years past.

"We don’t collect club fees because the members already have to buy their own costumes," club president senior YeeAnn Chen said.

Costumes are a crucial part of Chinese dance. In the past years, the club usually purchased the costumes needed for the dances earned and performed each year. However, the costume cost ran up to $130 last year, bought through the connection of a former officer who graduated. The club tried to asked Fashion Club to do the honors of making the costume but "they are not sure if they could do it," as Chinese dance costumes are elaborate and complicated to make.


"If you ask American companies, they can’t. They don’t have the experience," club officer sophomore Charlotte Yuan said.

In light of trying to make the dance experience as inexpensive as possible for the members, the club officers looked outside of the country for a solution. From the contacts at Yuan’s dance studio, Yuan found a way to purchase the costumes from a company in Shanghai.

"[The costumes] used to cost $45 a piece, now it is $70, but still a lot cheaper than what we would have paid before," Chen said.

In order to smoothen the communication process as much as possible, Yuan’s mother became the major liaison between the company and the club since she speaks Shanghainese fluently. Unfortunately, the plan still stood one step away from perfection — the Shanghai company would not ship costumes oversea.

"The only solution is to have someone who is traveling there to bring them back," Chen said. "Right now [getting the costumes from Shanghai] are the best plan we have since it’s cheap."

Since the club was looking forward to performing in the Winter Dance Showcase, the club was anxious in communicating with the company to see if there were further compromises. The worst case scenario would be a sartorial repeat rare on the scene.

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