This post was updated May 11 at 10:19 p.m.

After a year off the stage, UCLA’s Chinese Cultural Dance Club is back under the spotlight.

The club’s year-end showcase was canceled last year, but the group returned to Schoenberg Hall on Saturday for its annual Lotus Steps performance. The event started around 6:30 p.m. and stretched over two hours as performers moved through eight different dances, each tied together by the overarching theme, “In the Flower of Youth.” Emily Ou, a fourth-year cognitive science student and the club’s artistic director, said the theme was suggested by artistic advisor Alice Guey and developed to establish relatability between the student dancers and the audience.

“We thought it would be nice because most of the members here are currently in their flower of youth,” Ou said. “This is something a lot of people can relate to. A lot of the audience members who come can relate to this, too, even if they’re not in their current flower of youth.”

Ou said she served as the instructor for the first dance sequence of the night, a Cangzhou Lazi folk dance called “Emerging Lotus.” The dancers used fans and handkerchiefs as props while clad in pink-and-green ensembles, which Ou said represented floral imagery. The opening dance served to excite the audience and represent the broader themes of this year’s Lotus Steps, Ou said.

Grace Ou, a second-year human biology and society student and a member of the club’s finance team, participated in the second dance, “Whispers of the Wind,” which she said was different from the rest of the night’s routines. Set in the late Song dynasty, the performance depicted a group of soldiers united and fighting together in the wake of their emperor’s death, Grace Ou said. With the dancers wielding swords and performing a combination of flips and stiff movements, the dance was more masculine and exhibited a sense of pride, Grace Ou added.

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After dances called “Step into Melody” and “First Flowers in Spring,” the show arrived at its fifth segment, “Ballad of Water.” The club’s internal president, fourth-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student Jessica Lin, said she led the development of the dance in her first time as an instructor. She said she was excited and anxious for Saturday’s showcase and wanted this year’s Lotus Steps to be extravagant to mark the final performance for students like herself who will soon be graduating.

“A lot of people think (and) say, ‘College is the best four years of your life,’” Lin said. “I say yes and no, but I think this theme definitely brings that mentality into, ‘This is our youth, and this is our time to shine under the spotlight.’”

Lin said “Ballad of Water” was a regional dance embodying the Zhuang culture, a group that lives by the riverside. Each of the dancers wore bells hung on their back for the first two-thirds of the performance, Lin said, which was mellow to reflect the flow of water and its reflections. By comparison, the conclusion of the routine was more energetic as the dancers removed the bells from their backs and held the bells in hand, amplifying the soft clatter that Lin said mirrored the joy and playfulness of the sequence.

Being an instructor for the first time has allowed her to gain greater awareness of the group’s growth, Lin said. “Ballad of Water” evolved from practices at the beginning of the school year to a fully realized 6 1/2-minute performance now, which Lin said has been rewarding to see when looking back at older rehearsal videos. She added that she was able to form friendships with underclassmen in ways she did not expect.

“CCDC has basically been the one part of my college experience that I’ve stuck through since freshman year,” Lin said. “Being able to see the club grow with my closest friends these past four years has definitely been the most rewarding.”

[Related: Dance groups struggle to find rehearsal spaces amid John Wooden Center renovations]

After the sixth dance, “The Journey of a Legendary Painting,” the Chinese Cultural Dance Club’s penultimate dance was a routine called “Shimmering Light,” which Emily Ou said blended contemporary style with Chinese classical style. Grace Ou added that the number featured synchronized choreography and gradient costumes. The final performance of the night was “Footsteps of Happiness,” which Emily Ou said incorporated sharp movements and stomping in addition to a red flower prop. Grace Ou said she was excited by this finale because the dancers threw the flowers into the air. 

In addition to the eight dances by members of the Chinese Cultural Dance Club, the event featured appearances by several guest performers. The UCLA Chinese Music Ensemble opened the evening before “Emerging Lotus” with a rendition of “Joyous Song of the Ah Xi Tribe.” The Jade Lotus Lion Dance team performed a traditional drunken lion dance during the middle of the show that elicited laughter from the audience. Two teams of child dancers from the studio M Dance Collective also performed, with routines called “Whispers of Spring” and “Moonlit Symphony,” as did the competitive sports team UCLA Wushu.

One of the challenges of preparing for Saturday’s showcase was the difficulty of finding a space to practice and rehearse, Emily Ou said. As a result of ongoing renovations at the John Wooden Center, she said the team has not been able to use the practice rooms or squash courts that it normally would. Instead, she said the lobby of the Student Activities Center became a practice space, but it was small and crowded with other people passing through the area often. The wildfires across Los Angeles County in January were another hurdle, Emily Ou said, and they set back the practice schedule by two or three weeks.

Grace Ou, Emily Ou’s younger sister, said she did not join the Chinese Cultural Dance Club during her first year because she wanted to do something different from her sister. Now, she said she wishes she had joined the group sooner and enjoys seeing her sister at dance practices ahead of Emily Ou’s graduation. When looking at the club’s mission and Chinese dance more broadly, she said it is important to remember that Chinese culture cannot be captured by just one picture.

“There’s no single style that represents all of Chinese culture,” Grace Ou said. “There’s just so much diversity within Chinese culture, and we’re representing each individual minority subculture that makes up what people think of as Chinese culture.”