The Performance Pack Leaders on a Successful Fall Semester and What’s Coming Up in the Spring

The Performance Pack Leaders are a diverse team of students who volunteer to represent the performance groups they are involved in as well as representing the Department of Performing Arts and Technology as a whole. 

They assist with the department’s outreach and engagement efforts, share information about the department’s resources and opportunities, regularly meet with the department head, Stewart Benkert, and serve as overall role models within the department.

As the semester comes to a close, members of the group share the work the Performance Pack Leaders had planned for the spring in addition to their favorite dance and music moments from the fall term. Members also shared which department events and opportunities they most look forward to in the upcoming semester.

Emmie Cumby serves as director of Performance Pack Leaders. Cumby is a third-year majoring in business administration with a human resources concentration and minoring in psychology, Spanish, and leadership: cross-disciplinary perspectives. She is involved in the department through marching band, varsity pep band, and wind ensemble. 

She said her favorite part of the semester was the Latin show the marching band did, saying, “My grandfather used to play Malagueña, so I loved to have that connection to him.”

Cumby says she joined the Performance Pack Leaders because she “wanted to be able to make a difference” within her department “and have a positive impact” on the groups she loves.

She says the group plans to host events that allow students within dance and band, which normally do not intersect often, to get to know each other. She adds, “We also hope to become a point of contact for students to ask questions to.”

Annabelle Sharp is a member of the Performance Pack Leaders as well. Sharp is a third-year majoring in Fashion and Textile Management with a Concentration in Brand Management and Marketing and has a minor in dance in addition to being involved in Terrain Dance Project.

She says her favorite part of being involved in Performance Pack Leaders has been ​​“getting to know the band group and seeing what similarity we have as well as all the brainstorming we do to grow our department.” 

She says she wanted to get involved in order to see what role students could have in helping to listen to their fellow students and implement change, with the group’s aim being “leaving the department better than we found it and making an impact.”

McKenna Stout also serves as a Performance Pack Leader. Stout is a fourth-year majoring in animal science with a concentration in pre-veterinary bioscience and minoring in dance choreography and performance and is involved in the Panoramic Dance Project.

Stout says her favorite part of the fall semester was the Fall Dance Concert, during which she was able to showcase her work with the company.

She says she joined the Performance Pack Leaders “to advertise and advocate for dance at the university level.” She added that she hopes “NC State will continue to expand the arts department and that more students will begin to realize the presence of the program.”

She says that, for now, the group is “discussing ideas to promote the department during NCSU’s annual Day of Giving” and looking ahead to finding ways to unify the department and increase collaboration.

Stout is also looking ahead to the “Panoramic Dance Project Spring Showcase in late March, as well as all of the guest artist residencies the company has scheduled for the Spring semester.”

She says, as a part of Performance Pack Leaders, she is “excited for the various programs of the DPAT to continue to cross paths.”

For those thinking of getting involved with the Performance Pack Leaders, Cumby says, “Do it! The Performance Pack Leaders group is a great way to get to know students who not only have different musical backgrounds and experiences but come from all over and are majoring in so many cool things.”

“It’s also just a super supportive and passionate group that wants to make a difference in the department and NC State as a whole,” she added.

Stout echoed this saying, “Be an advocate for the arts! There is so much passion and joy to be found in any artistic endeavor, and we need voices to project that throughout the university.”

“We are always looking for people who want to make an impact and have ideas on what they can do,” said Sharp.