Student Performance Groups Celebrate Saving Energy

To celebrate weeks of energy saving, a UR Unplugged Finale show was held this Saturday in the May Room. This show featured various performing groups from around campus.
UR Unplugged is an event held by Grassroots that lasts several weeks and focuses on reducing the amount of energy used by dorm buildings.
It was first held in 2006 and this is the second time that it has been done. This year, Tiernan came in first with Sue B. in second and the Drama House in third.
The ever-rocking No Jackets Required kicked off the show on Saturday. They performed a total of six songs, supplementing the staple of guitar, bass, drums and vocals with the occasional electric mandolin, saxophone and bongo-style drums. The first two songs were solid pieces, if a little on the slow side. The third song changed the pace up with a sped-up version of ‘Are You Gonna Be My Girl” that was quite the toe-tapper. After that was ‘Jump On It” with an electric mandolin twist. They finished off their set with a great rendition of ‘Life is a Highway.” Sadly, their great musical performances did little to move the lethargic audience.
After the short intermission was the traditional Indian dance group, Raas. Their eye-catching outfits and flowing dance movies kept the audience mesmerized. The group recovered smoothly from the random music cut-off, and their incorporation of props added nicely to the performance.
And, of course who could miss the two back-flips, which got a big cry from the audience. Following up was the improvisation group, In Between The Lines. They played several entertaining games such as ‘Show Me That,” a game in which improvers zoom in on specific parts of a scenario, ‘sound effects,” in which sounds are provided for the actors to go with and ‘role reversal,” an entertaining game where time is thrown about willy nilly.
The game led to very random scenes that the performers quickly adapted to, all of which ended up being hysterical.
‘Sound effects” resulted in a patient case that even House would have trouble solving. ‘Role reversal” was simply straight-up funny, the final product being a human Chia pet.
They finished off with ‘Say It,” a game in which each participant is assigned a catch phrase that must be spouted out on command. The catch phrases for the night included ‘I’m on a boat,” ‘It’s morphing time” and ‘Cowabunga,” which combined together for a very entertaining scene. All of these games were a great success, getting tons of laughs from the audience.
The next group to perform was Sihir Bellydance Ensemble. Their glitzy outfits provided a jingling background to their actual performance while the dance moves were mesmerizing and showed off some serious stomach skills. The sinuous movements revealed that not only is bellydancing an attractive hobby, but it’s a good work out, too. A total of three dances were performed, with the final one adding large flowing scarves that added an interesting aura to the dance.
Following the alluring belly dancers came the ever-popular a cappella group Midnight Ramblers. The crowd was really roused by their variety of songs.
They started off strong with a version of ‘Just What I Needed,” an oldie but a goodie, and ended with the more contemporary hit, ‘Shake It,” in which freshman Jared Suresky brought crowd participation to a whole new level as he serenaded ladies in the front row. As always, the Ramblers captivated the audience and left them wanting more, a great segue to the final act of the night.
The finale was the exciting and impressive UR Bhangra group. Not only is their dance style eye-catching and their outfits as fun and outlandish as can be, but the sheer athletic ability necessary to carry out the performance is impressive. The only downside was the brevity of the performance.
Altogether, this was a thoroughly enjoyable show. Who knew that saving some energy could result in such great entertainment events?
Schmitt is a member of
the class of 2012.