A photo recap of the Winter Dynamic Duos Rally 2020
How the 2020 Winter Rally changed to a team rally
![Andaaz captain and junior Akshat Rohatgi says the team has always been interested in working with Raas and Bhangra, as they are all Bollywood and hip-hop fusion dance clubs. This is the first time these three teams have collaborated for a rally performance. “I feel like we give back to the school in a way [when we perform],” Rohatgi said. “We just love performing in general at shows, and especially at rallies since we performed at the Homecoming Rally earlier this year.”](https://elestoque.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/IMG_0867-900x600.jpg)
Andaaz captain and junior Akshat Rohatgi says the team has always been interested in working with Raas and Bhangra, as they are all Bollywood and hip-hop fusion dance clubs. This is the first time these three teams have collaborated for a rally performance. “I feel like we give back to the school in a way [when we perform],” Rohatgi said. “We just love performing in general at shows, and especially at rallies since we performed at the Homecoming Rally earlier this year.”
February 19, 2020
“2-0-2-3 Shrek and Donkey!”
“Mario and Yoshi win the trophy!”
On Friday, Feb. 14, the usual class cheers took a twist as MVHS broke into two teams for the Winter Dynamic Duos Rally. The classes of 2021 and 2022 (in red and white to represent Mario and Yoshi) and 2020 and 2023 (in green and black to represent Shrek and Donkey) crowded onto the bleachers in the gym to face off. According to ASB president and senior Brett Park, the winter rally is typically their chance to experiment with different styles. Echoing the concept of the Winter Rally two years ago, which was Marvel versus D.C. themed, this year’s rally was also a team rally.
With the structural change of having a team rally, there was more time for performances compared to past rallies. Korean Club Dance Committee, Dance Team, Song Pom and a mix of Andaaz, Bhangra and Raas performed between the rally games, which were organized by Leadership’s Spirit Committee. After the series of three rally games, as well as the traditional 20 second cheers and sing-a-long, 2021 and 2022 — known as team Mario and Yoshi — came out victorious in the Dynamic Duos Rally.
Park explains that due to the competitive dynamic that often exists between classes, they hoped creating teams would allow for more opportunities for students to branch out.
“I think that a lot of times in our school, we’re always divided in our classes and we don’t really get to meet new people,” Park said. “We thought that having teams collaborate with each other would spark more collaboration between the [different classes] and more friendships possibly.”
Outreach Commissioner and junior Nicholas Hsieh echoes Park’s sentiment, as he enjoyed being able to interact with more people that he otherwise wouldn’t have. He feels that collaborating between classes also aided the planning process.
“Normally, it’s class versus class, so all the classes have to do their own separate thing,” Hsieh “It was cooler to coordinate. We had more ideas coming in, so it was more fun to plan it.”
Park notes that sparking collaboration and school unity is the ultimate goal for all rallies, not just team rallies. With those objectives in mind, Park explains that the freshmen-senior and junior-sophomore pairings were intentional.
“Sometimes seniors can be really scary and intimidating to the freshmen,” Park said. “We thought that it would be really nice to see us play and collaborate and have a buddy to go through the next couple [months], especially because second semester seniors have more time to handle the pressure and help them out a bit.”
Click through the photo slideshow to see what happened at the Winter Dynamic Duos Rally.
