One of my favorite things about Georgetown is the performing arts scene, and the great number of people that participate in it every year. This could be anything ranging from a play or musical put on by the Performing Arts Department, Mask & Bauble, or Nomadic Theaters; a capella shows involving the Phantoms, Chimes, Superfood, the Capital G's, or Harmony; dance shows like Asiafest, Rangila, Luau, or anything involving Groove Theory (our premier hip-hop dance troupe); and a whole range of other types of performances, like the GU Improv Festival that I attended this past weekend. Any given week there are a number of performances going on, and so many opportunities to join one of these groups exist that pretty much invariably you'll have at least a couple of friends in the performance.
One of the best things, in my opinion, is cheering on your friends during a dance or other sort of performance in Gaston Hall. Last Friday and Saturday, the GU Players Improv Group (GUPIG) hosted improv groups from Ohio State, Xavier University, and the University of Chicago to participate in their annual GU Improv Festival. I'm a little biased towards GUPIG because my roommate is a member, but I was very impressed by the rest of the groups that showed up as well (some driving over 10 hours to be with us for the weekend).
Personally, I'm not terribly inclined towards the performing arts. I see myself as a professional audience member; I feel I've perfected the proper timing for cheering, clapping, shedding a tear, etc. However, I have become involved with one show in particular. My freshman year my Residential Assistant (R.A.) Veena encouraged everyone on my floor to participate in the huge annual South Asian dance and cultural show "Rangila," which she and her friends were all highly involved in. Having never actually heard of "Bhangra" dancing, and being extremely skeptical of being able to participate in a dance that I'd never heard of, I decided to go see the show instead. The experience entirely blew me away- a show with over 300 dancers (among 10 dances) completely (and routinely) sells out of tickets for its 2 nights in the 600-seat Gaston Hall in under an hour.
The atmosphere of the show is electrifying, with all 300-some-odd dancers standing behind the seats in Gaston and shouting encouragement to their 30 friends on stage during each dance- it's hard to not get caught up in the energy. After seeing the show again my sophomore year, I decided to take the plunge and joined the dance "Bulldog Bhangra". The resulting experience was incredible- I met a ton of great people and learned to dance bhangra. This year, I decided to up the ante and dance in two different parts of the show, so I joined "Bollywood Remix" and "Senior Bhangra," and I haven't looked back since.
John Dougherty
SFS '09
Austin, TX
