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Different colors, different nationalities,
and different backgrounds.
They pursued one purpose.
Only once...
only on that night...
all for one show...
2012 Korean Pop Music Festival...
PYRA.
Pyra is a Korean word that means bloom like a beautiful flower.
People use it often to encourage others to allow their abilities to bloom.
Pyra welcomed its second annual festival.
Last year Pyra was different in its format in that it was more like a competition then a show.
Every participant tried their best to show the audience what they've got.
Everything was successful as we planned,
but we noticed that there was one unexpected result...
it was that a lot of non-Koreans came and showed their enthusiasm,
even though Pyra was newly introduced to the University of Iowa.
This inspired me to ask myself...
wouldn't it be great if people from all different backgrounds participate and become one for Pyra?
That is exactly what this year's Pyra was about.
Promoting Pyra first started off with an aesthetic poster.
Students with outstanding gifts came up with this creative poster which tied into the theme of Pyra well.
The next step was to cast performers, the flowers of the show.
We were searching for passionate and skillful participants within the University,
and with some effort and a little luck,
we were able to get in touch with our schools renowned dance group, Iowa Andi
These beautiful ladies performed K-pop dance
which was different from their normal routine, Bollywood Dance.
To learn the choreography of "The Boys" by Girls Generation,
Iowa Andi teamed up with Pyra's dance directors.
This opportunity opened the way for the students with different backgrounds,
to communicate and share their passion in the art of dancing.
They put in their best efforts for a great performance, and succeeded.
Practice makes perfect,
and passion added to that, brings the performance to another level.
Dedication and passion are words that best describe the work that these girls put into their performance.
For a better show, they put in two months of solid work and gave up Friday nights for dance practice.
InFlight, just like their name suggests,
this amazing all girls dance group from the University of Iowa,
took the audience of Pyra on a flight of delightful excitement
These girls showed a performance that was sometimes sharp, sometimes elegant
sometimes spicy, but always amazing.
They performed a medley of a few K-pop and hip-hop songs and the audience was in love.
In order to promote our music festival and attract a bigger audience,
we conducted a flash mob of the famous K-pop "Gangnam Style" prior to Pyra.
As a finale of Pyra, performers all danced to the "Gangnam Style".
"Gangnam Style" being the sensational song that it is,
brought the audience and performers together and set the festive mood before and after the show.
It was the perfect choice for the 2012 Korean Pop Music Festival, Pyra.
If someone were to ask me how I would remember this year's Pyra,
I would say, Pyra was successful,
It was not because we attracted a bigger audience than last year or had better performances,
Pyra was successful because it became an event were students of different nationalities got to know each other better and became one.
Pyra is a music festival, but it is not only about singing or dancing,
Pyra is about breaking boundaries and unifying students from various backgrounds together in music.