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Students escaped the cold and rushed into the seats of the Brady Educational Center auditorium for the “Be Visible” event, presented by Invisible Children on Saturday night.

PULSE and Dance Club partnered to fund raise for the Invisible Children organization’s Schools for Schools campaign, and to help the chapter on campus spread the word about war-torn Uganda.

To enter the auditorium, students flashed their “tickets” for admission, which were homemade bracelets made of twine and cloth with the words “Be Visible” written on them.

Educating the audience

While waiting for the dancers to take the stage, the audience saw a slide show of photos that featured pictures and facts about the war between the Government of Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army. One slide read, “Just celebrated your big 2-1? The war has been going on longer than you have been alive.”

After the background music silenced, a short film was shown telling the story of the Invisible Children and the war that has left nearly two million innocent children caught in the middle.

Junior Kamal Mohamed, the event’s emcee, then took the microphone and extended a thank you to everyone for attending. Throughout the evening he introduced performances and informed the crowd of the situation in Uganda and the daily struggles that the children face.

Taking the stage

Dance Club and PULSE alternated gracing the stage with routines that brought energy to the room, using different styles of music, dance and expression. A wide variety of costumes, including some with masks, gave personality to each performance and in the end left the audience cheering enthusiastically.

“It was very good,” said junior Nicole Neverman after the show. “They put a lot of work into it and the powerful cause behind it showed their creativity … It was inspiring to see so many people get so passionate about it.”

Because tickets were sold prior to the event, Dance Club Co-President Lexy Wolf, said attendance was a concern but the turnout was better than expected.

“It’s a Saturday night and we still almost had a full house,” Wolf said.

Audience members were not only happy to attend for the PULSE and Dance Club performances, but for the purpose of donating to the Invisible Children organization.

“The best part for me was that this event raised money,” senior Reggie Evans said. “When you do something that can actually create change, that’s always a plus.”

A moving performance

PULSE had the last performance of the night in which it depicted a boy who was kidnapped from his home by members of the Lord’s Resistance Army. He was enslaved as a child soldier who is taught to kill and in the end was forced to murder his own parents. The powerful representation of Uganda’s situation made an impression on many audience members, including Wolf.

“I really enjoyed the ending, which was probably most people’s favorite,” she said. “I hadn’t seen that dance yet, which was choreographed by PULSE’s Derek Porter. It was super intense, but they choreographed it just for Invisible Children. It was moving.”

The groups plan to continue working together in the future and for each that means progress.

“Without the help of Dance Club and PULSE, this event wouldn’t have been as big as it was,” said Invisible Children group member, Channing James. “It was ridiculously awesome. It was a success.”

Sally Schreiber can be reached at sfschreiber@stthomas.edu