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UCLA’s Chinese Cultural Dance Club held student-run practices leading up to its annual prod

“The show must go on” is a common motto underlying any kind of performance art, and that saying is especially true this year for the seventh annual Lotus Steps, a production by the UCLA Chinese Cultural Dance Club. Despite recent losses of outside staff support, the CCDC’s show will go on to be performed on Saturday at 7 p.m. in Royce Hall.

The members of CCDC choose the theme of Lotus Steps each year based on the dances incorporated in the program as well as the general mood of the club. This year, the theme of “Celebration” reflects the shift to a student-centered production.

“It is a celebration; a new beginning. We thought it was fitting,” said Christina Chung, a fourth-year ecology and evolutionary biology student who assumed the role of artistic director this year.

“The club has changed quite a bit in the past year through a shift in leadership. Before, we had an outside artistic director and she would choreograph a lot of dances,” said Tiffany Keng, CCDC public relations production manager and a UCLA alumna. “This year, it’s all student-run; it’s all student-choreographed dances.”

In previous years, the ensemble was directed by Josephine Louie, a UCLA alumna, who choreographed and oversaw many of production’s pieces. With her retirement from the club last year, undergraduate students in CCDC have had to step up to fill that role. The club finds this to be a positive shift, allowing for growth and change within the group.

“We’re definitely excited. I think it’s a very good thing,” Chung said. “It lends to a sort of immortality for the club, so we aren’t relying on the ability of outside help.”

As one of the undergraduate students who stepped in to help lead the direction of the club, Chung taught most of the dances and also organized the way the show would be run this year.

Following the central theme of “Celebration,” many of the dances are festive traditional pieces that reflect various areas of Chinese culture.

Karen Tzong, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student, taught two of the dances performed in Lotus Steps. One piece incorporates traditional Mongolian movements into a contemporary style, while the other is a traditional dance from the Yi tribe.

“The Axi Moon Dance is a festival courting dance – a celebratory dance,” Tzong said.

The opening piece of the production is a Royal Court Dance that includes traditional movements and the use of fans.

“It is the more traditional dance that people associate Chinese dancing with,” Tzong said.

The largest cast dance, with 24 student dancers, is the Formosa dance.

“It reflects the rustic traditional life of the Taiwanese people, and incorporates a variety of different props: hats, handkerchiefs, wooden shoes,” Chung said.

CCDC’s dance production incorporates other student and community groups as well. Envision Vocals, a student gospel choir, will collaborate with the dancers in a piece titled “Friendship.” African and Chinese cultures will blend together through modern dance and an a cappella song sung in Mandarin.

“We collaborated with Envision Vocals, as one of CCDC’s dancers is also in the group. They all have this passion and talent for a cappella,” Tzong said.

Young dancers between the ages of 4 and 10 will also be dancing in Lotus Steps. Each girl was adopted from China, and they are all members of Families with Children from China. Their affiliations with both FCC and CCDC help to strengthen their cultural ties.

“As an outreach program we incorporated them into our club a few years ago and they’ve been dancing with us since,” said Chung.

Through the collaborative nature of Lotus Steps, CCDC hopes to share Chinese culture with those less familiar with it.

“Our main mission of CCDC is to share Chinese culture through dance,” said Tzong. “By being involved and doing these performances I’ve learned a lot about the dances and I hope that we are able to convey that to the audience.”