Midnight Rave: Final Mix

So this past Wednesday and Thursday were the final appearances of Midnight Rave in the Hinsdale Central Variety Show. Because 6 out of 8 members this year are seniors ( myself included ) , we came to the conclusion that the six-years tradition may have come to a conclusion. However, with two outstanding freshman and an additional junior that is joining shortly after the variety show, the future of Midnight Rave seems bright.

This year's act name is called Midnight Rave: Final Mix. I am pretty sure all the hardcore gamers such as myself can guess the origin of such title with immense accuracy. Yes, the inspiration comes from one of my all-time favorite RPG series known as Kingdom Hearts.



Above is our Wednesday's performance. This year, it seems like Day 1 was actually better than Day 2. Maybe it's because it's senior night, or maybe it's because of the primary adrenaline rush that we felt during the performance. But ah well, as long as the audience liked it =)

The act this year can be broken down into three parts: breakdancing, popping, and raving.

Breakdancing, first introduced by David Wu from the first generation, has been a milestone for the group. With tremendous difficulty to practice with safety, this area is by far the hardest to improve. However, with Alex Kim's guidance and experience, the group manages to improve this weakness with unbelievable speed. In no time, this becomes one of our best selling points. Needless to say, Alex Kim is also the breakdancing choreographer of the group.

Popping, lead by Aaron Saballo, is one area which almost none of the members of the group is able to touch. With exceptions of Kevin Qiu and arguably Alex Kim, the trio manages to pull out a satisfying routine at the last minute to impress the audience. It seems like only the formation and the sequence of solos are planned for the variety show. However, with Aaron Saballo's extraordinary fluidity, this remains one of the most unbelievable feat ever done by Midnight Rave.

Raving, the most anticipating part of the group, was made famous by Alex Sun from the first generation. To be exact, the "raving" which Hinsdale Central refers to is actually known as "glowstringing". It was a type of dance which propers during the 80's and 90's in clubs. With Alex Sun's graduation in 2008, the group was dismayed due to the clear lack of knowledge in the area. Attempted to keep the group true to its name, I picked up the pace and learned several new moves on my own, which ultimately led to my responsibility as this year's raving coordinator. The goal was to make up the lack of knowledge about the art with fascinating patterns and a "surprise" to put a beautiful period mark in our career in the variety show.

As mentioned, 6 out of 8 of us are graduating this year. Although we feel like Midnight Rave may be able to survive for years to come, we doubt its capability to meet or surpass the expectations which we set this year. Although this may sound selfish, but it may be for the best to end the group this year. If the three remaining members are interested enough to keep the tradition going, they can always start a new crew with a new name. After all, it's not the name that counts, its the fact that there are still somebody in Hinsdale Central willing to share their passion for hitting the beats.