By Deborah Glick
When applying to be Fashion Show Coordinator, one usually needs to have been in previous productions. Senior Ally H. did not meet that qualification. Being turned down both sophomore and junior years, Ally H. had a different outlook on Fashion Show going into her senior year. She believed “You don’t have to know how to dance to perform in Fashion Show.” With this attitude, Ally H. applied to be coordinator for Fashion Show 2012. She said, “It was a challenge. The fact that the [previous coordinators] told me I couldn’t made me want to do it.”
Ally H. went on to say, “I had a different perspective. The performance has been the same thing for years now, and I wanted to make a difference.” That seemed to win over the selection committee, and Ally H. got the job.
As a coordinator, she helped choreograph the opening and closing dances and assisted other performers with their own dances. She started planning in August and ended up nearly living at Michaels and school by the end of October.
She said, “People really underestimate what we [coordinators] do. A lot of people think that it’s so glamorous; that’s what I even thought. But I can’t emphasize how much work goes into it. We put so much of our lives into the production. After the show, I cried. My mind was happy, but my body cried.”
In addition to being a coordinator, Ally H. was also an emcee, something she chose to do. “I always thought when I was a senior I would be an emcee.” Being emcee brought Ally H. her most memorable part of fashion show: blanking out on some of her lines during the production. Even though she forgot the lines, Ally H. will never forget that retrospectively funny moment on stage.
Ally H. will also remember the entire Fashion Show experience. She said, “I knew it would be different. I told people ‘No matter what you heard about fashion show, it’s going to be different.’” Not only was the whole production different from previous years, but the cast also became much closer than usual. “I asked the other coordinators if previous casts were like this, and they said not at all,” Ally H. said. She continued, “Maybe it was because our show was more collective. We all bonded so much. We still all talk on Facebook. It’s like it’s not really over yet.”