After dancing on the side during acts, Variety Show emcee LaTessa Black requested a song and invited audience members to come up and dance with her and co-emcee Amanda Ostoich. About 20 people eventually got up and danced to Unk's "Walk it Out", including a little girl who hip-hopped with the best of them.
Students and community members filled the L.A. Pittenger Student Center Ballroom Friday night for Unity Week's first-ever Variety Show.
Performers included 22 Ball State students and four groups and solo acts from around Muncie and Indiana.
Tim Ryan, junior sociology and telecommunications major, read a poem he wrote about how he felt about a girl he liked but who didn't like him back because of his skin color. He began writing poetry about six years ago.
"I decided to read my poetry at Unity Week because Tiffany Washington [assistant director of Student Life} asked me to," Ryan said, "and I wanted to do it because I've read my poetry a few times."
The evening included hip-hop dancing, poetry, singing, stepping and a drag performance. The stepping was done by the Phi Beta Sigma and Alpha Phi Alpha fraternities, inc.
Alpha Phi Alpha started it out as a competition between the two groups, but at the end they announced that because it was Unity Week, maybe they should try it together. The groups combined their step routines and came together.
Brittany Smith, Black Student Association president, said the Variety Show was started this year as an opportunity for different groups to come together and show off their talents.
Students and others could show talents that other people may not know they possess, she said.
Sophomore telecommunications major Reggie Mathis also shared with the audience poetry he had written. He said he has been writing poetry since sixth grade.
"I wanted to perform at the Variety Show because it seemed like a fun evening," Mathis said, "and I wanted to contribute."
The Variety Show was one of the concluding events for Unity Week. The week was put together to honor Martin Luther King Jr. Day and to help campus unity.
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
