From live music to martial arts to dance, Northwestern’s Korean-American Student Association brought lots of energy to Ryan Family Auditorium Friday night.
The theme, “sKuid gAmes,” was inspired by the popular South Korean television show of the same name. The various musical numbers, dances and skits showcased Korean culture and attracted hundreds of audience members.
“It’s a huge event, you know, (a) huge production,” Weinberg senior and KASA co-President Esther Tang said. “People come, and the energy is just palpable. It’s as if I could cut it with a pair of scissors.”
From KASA singers to the club’s dance group, KASA Presents to NU Taekwondo, music and dance lit up the stage throughout the show.
The headliner, khai dreams, closed out the night by performing songs including “Sunkissed” and “Fantasy,” as a small crowd gathered in front of the stage.
Tang and KASA’s co-president, Weinberg senior Janice Yim, transferred club leadership to Weinberg juniors Caleb Shim and Yena Son for next year. The event included a raffle to win gift cards for Weee!, an Asian grocery delivery service.
“KASA has this reputation of being just like a party organization, or like, ‘Oh, we don’t do many cultural events, or we don’t do a lot of community bonding,’” Yim said. “But I think KASA Show is a time where we can really show that, like, no, we do so much more than that … I just really hope that people take away this emphasis of community and culture.”
The performances were broken up with skits following Player 456, played by Weinberg junior Jun Park, as he went through KASA’s version of “Squid Game.”
From Park’s underclassmen friends refusing to grant a meal swipe to a game of “Red Light, Green Light” in one of the Technological Institute classrooms, the plotline of the video skits localized the international hit television series in a way that kept the audience laughing as it developed.
“We’re like, ‘Oh, if you do our KASA Show, it’ll still be kind of on the trend,’ and you can hop on this wave where it’s like, right after season two and right before season three,” Yim said.
After Player 456 was caught by guards and brought on stage, Tang and Yim unmasked themselves as the ones “behind the games” — both for being “sKuid gAmes” guards on stage and for planning the show months in advance.
Tang said planning started as early as the end of Fall Quarter and was a long process, including logistics like booking Ryan Auditorium and deciding what performances to feature. Yim said KASA held rehearsals leading up to the show in its “Tech Week” and that as a senior, it was bittersweet.
“KASA was such an integral part of my underclassmen years. It was where I found community,” Yim said. “And I think now that I’m older and as president, I really want to give that back to the underclassmen that are here and just really show them you can bring everyone together, even if it is through a show, through dancing and singing and just really celebrate culture.”
The audience began cheering even before the first band began to play, crowded in front of the stage for khai dreams. Ryan Family Auditorium was nearly full of people.
To build excitement and spread awareness for the event, KASA hosted a Culture Week, including painting The Rock, a buldak eating competition and an arts and crafts night, which Tang said was meant to “heal your inner child” in honor of Children’s Day, a holiday in South Korea.
Weinberg senior and KASA Cultural Chair Edward Seo said his goal for Culture Week was to bring KASA members together.
“This is arguably our second biggest week of the year, so we have the most KASA members pull up to these events,” Seo said. “So, I think always being able to find that balance between having fun activities to do, as well as learn about Korean culture and as well as helping our members bond with one another is always my goal.”
Tang shared the same sentiment, adding that Culture Week also helps KASA members who gradually became less involved with the organization through the year engage with the group again.
For Tang, the show celebrated not only Korean culture but the strength and talent of the NU KASA “family.”
“(KASA has) really given me a family,” Tang said. “I wouldn’t have met a lot of these people, if I hadn’t been in KASA, and if I hadn’t become president. And I think the show is just a culmination of all that community and that support.”
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