"Don't You See That We Are The Best"

University of California, Riverside is one of the most diverse universities. We have students from different ethnicities, cultures, believes, and customs. I believe that being part of a diverse campus should make us feel proud and gratified. Interacting with students from different ethnicities can make a difference in our lives inside and outside of school by influencing our social life. We learn to accept each other’s believes and point of views. Having people from different backgrounds should unite us more and show that we have school spirit at all times.

Therefore, our group decided to choose the theme “Lack of School Spirit.” The reason we choose this theme was because as students we have notice that although we are in a diverse campus, there is no unity among us. If we pay close attention as we walk around campus, we will notice the way certain groups hang out with their own ethnic group. Of course, there is no problem with that but this shows that we need to interact with everyone around us and we should all feel included-not excluded from our campus.

To begin, the name that we decided to name our team was “JuicyR.” At first, I heard Alex shouting “Juicy” I was not that convinced. However, after I yelled out “R” our group thought of putting both words together “Juicy-R.” I started to like that idea of the name but then I thought of myself of how the name would fit according to our theme. But as we began our objective everything started to make sense. The objective of our theme was to demonstrate that through music any one can come together and show how much spirit we can give out if we are all united.

Consequently, after choosing our theme that’s when our mission began! Choosing our choreography, music, signs, gestures, chants, costumes, and props was a challenge. First, we began by meeting at the library. At the first meeting, we discussed where and the time we were going to start meeting and confirming with each other what was each other’s position in the group. Also, we mentioned who was going to be part of our performance and we concluded that it would be best for everyone to perform and demonstrate spirit no matter how bad of performers we are.

In overall, the first meeting set the beginning of a great experience. As for my part, I began new friendships and was able to feel that experience again of working as a team.
Axel, Melissa, and Stephanie; our choreographers, came up with the idea of dividing our team into 3 groups. The reason they concluded by diving the team was because the objective of our performance was to send the message across of how united a group of people belonging to a certain place can become through music and dance. The team was divided into 3 groups, “U” crew, “C” crew, and “R” crew; representing UCR. That was to represent the separation among UCR and the lack of spirit.

Each crew had their own music and dance movements. Our performance was divided into four sections. First, each crew had their own music and dance movements. The first section it was the “U”, second the “C”, and third the “R” performance. Before each crew did their performance they would shout their name and demonstrate through gestures that they were superior from the other crews, demonstrating the separateness between the groups. For instance, my crew had to say "Don't You See That We Are The Best." As each group presented their dance, the other groups would make gestures to demonstrate that they were not better than our own crew. The “U” crew represented the Oxum. They represented the god of love and carry mirror as an accoutrement, suggesting that she is in vain. As for our team representing Oxum was to show that our school is in vain for the lack of school spirit. Lastly, after everyone had presented their dance we all came together to dance everyone’s choreography. Thus, the fourth section was to represent unity among us by dancing altogether. Our audience was impressed of what we had come up with. I know and I am confident that they understood the message of our group.

Consequently, after having the dance ready we had to decide which costumes we were going to be wearing. We had decided to have the name of our group spray painted in shirts. However, due to certain circumstances we were not able to use those shirts. However, later since our theme was “Lack of School Spirit” the group decided to have the letter printed of each letter of the name of our university, “U”, “C”, “R”, and thus each group would wear the letter that they belonged to. At the end, we choose to use streamers to get our message across that we all need to unite and be school spirited.

Most importantly, my experience of being part of a dance group was great. I was able to establish new friendships and have a sense of responsibility. In this process, I learned to be committed. Having this assignment was very helpful, and I believe it was for everyone as well, everyone was able to come together and form a small family at school. Meeting and having constant communication with my peers was awesome; I was able to know them quite more and was able to feel comfortable. I was able to express my ideas without any problem and everyone was comprehensive.

Being part of the “JuicyR” team was amazing, we all worked together as a team. We all gave out our best and I know everyone put an effort to make this possible. Thanks guys!

I would also like to thank Professor Ana Scott, Ryan, Ana, and Kim. They were very supportive and made our first year a great experience.
by
Monica Mendez