By Anna Synakh || Managing Editor

Photo Courtesy of Choomies.

With more than a hundred clubs and organizations on campus, we as students often lose ourselves in the options present. Many of us stick to whichever organizations we landed on two days after the club fair our freshman year and have made little to no effort to explore the various other opportunities available to us. The clubs we most often fear joining are those that are centered around artistic talents, such as dance. Nearly every single one of us has gone to a dance recital at F&M, and come out amazed by the talent just shown on stage. Yet, there is always room for students with no prior experience in our various dance organizations. One of such clubs is Choomies, a K-POP dance club. 

Photo Courtesy of Choomies.

Choomies’ incoming co-president Pam Hernandez has been dancing with the group since her freshman year fall when her HA slightly pressured her to try out. Pam has been dancing ever since she was little, and had almost always been drawn to K-Pop music and dance. For the majority of her time with Choomies she’s had to practice on Zoom, but this semester everything changed, and the club is now thriving with in-person practices. 

The ability to get together with all of the other members has brought them all a new sense of elation and the reignited excitement to keep dancing. “Some dancers go in to dance at 1 am just to practice,” just because they crave it, says Pam.

Photo Courtesy of Choomies.

This year has been all about growth for the club, both in the number of members and the audience. When Pam joined last year Choomies had about 20 members, this year they are getting close to 40. Their new focus is on marketing and expanding their visual and filming team, ensuring that their content gets out there in the best way possible. The club has also been increasing the number of performances they host this semester, doing a show at the Coming Out Party, the School Bonfire, and putting on their own showcase this upcoming weekend (which everyone should come to!).

Throughout our conversation, Pam wanted to highlight how great of an environment the club has been for her and for many other members. They often get boba tea as a treat after practice and chat, sometimes they prolong their long nights with some food, and dancing just for the pure joy of it all. 

“You really don’t need to be a dancer to join. We have a girl who was completely new to dancing when she came in, and now she’s flying!” Pam couldn’t keep herself from smiling when encouraging people to give Choomies a try. This charming dance club transformed her F&M life and can serve as a fantastic artistic outlet for many on our campus. 

Come out to our showcase!! Choomies has a showcase this Friday, December 10 in the SCC Atrium from 6:30-8:30 pm.

Senior Anna Synakh is the managing editor. Her email is asynakh@fandm.edu.

By TCR