Some models walk the runway with an arrogant strut and icy, superior stare.
Not Blaise Ellis ’25. He’s having too much fun — and the Extravaganza audience hangs on his every move.
Throughout the fashion, music, and culture show — organized by Bryant’s Multicultural Student Union and the culmination of Bryant University’s celebration of Black History Month — the track and field athlete has incorporated swagger, dramatics poses, and even breakdancing into his walks. But the audience still isn’t prepared when he performs a dazzling front flip.
Each moment is uniquely Blaize’s own — and he’s determined to seize them all.
A Bryant tradition now in its 35th year, Extravaganza is a chance to show out, Ellis notes, and everyone gets to add their own flavor. The theme for this year’s performance is “Reel to Runway: Black Cinema through Time” and the Action/Superheroes scene, one of four that evening, gives Ellis the chance to demonstrate what he can do.
But there’s more to Extravaganza than that, he explains.
“This is a chance for us to be a part of something bigger than ourselves,” says Ellis. Through a performance like Extravaganza, students celebrate Black excellence, cutting through a time of division like a beacon. “This is something that otherwise we don’t have many chances to share or experience,” he notes.
“It’s a chance to be proud of who we are, and proud of everyone else,” Blaise concludes.
It’s perhaps no surprise that, throughout the show, Ellis is often paired with Corinne Gbalekuma-Hubbard ’26, whose every move is infused with the same sense of joy, both onstage and off. This is Gbaleuma-Hubbard’s third year as part of the Extravaganza cast and she’s modeling in three of the show’s four scenes, plus the opening dance showcase performed by Bryant’s aDvANCEd Evolution dance team.
“I've done this since my freshman year, and I've never wanted to stop,” Gbalekuma-Hubbard states. “I love being on stage and it makes me so happy to look in the crowd and see my friends and family and so many others in the audience.”
“Everyone here is my friend, even if they don't know it yet. They're my friend because I hold everyone here so dear; they mean so much to me because Extravaganza, and what it represents, means so much to me.”
As an orientation leader and counselor for 4MILE, Gbalekuma-Hubbard has spent much of her time at Bryant helping to build inclusive and supportive communities.
“I think it’s an incredibly beautiful thing how the entire Bryant community comes together for Extravaganza,” she notes. “So many different students from different cultures and ethnicities and races are here to celebrate Blackness, Black love, and Black history, and seeing all of them together makes me feel so happy and welcome.”
“Everyone here is my friend, even if they don't know it yet,” Gbalekuma-Hubbard says, laughing. “They're my friend because I hold everyone here so dear; they mean so much to me because Extravaganza, and what it represents, means so much to me.”
More than 50 students took part in this year’s show, both onstage and behind the scenes, and they spent countless hours ensuring the performance goes off without a hitch. The only real hiccup? They had to delay the start to bring in more chairs for an audience larger than they could imagine.
“There’s a hunger in the community to tell these stories, and there’s a hunger in the audience to hear them,” says Joseph Lopez ’25, the director of this year’s show, and a co-lead for the Action/Superhero scene.
This year’s show took audiences through vignettes revolving around Black films in the action, drama, and romance genres. That diversity allowed the students to explore a variety of different styles, says Lopez, but it also carried a different message.
“Extravaganza is a reminder that all stories deserve to be heard,” he says. “I want the audience to be entertained, but I also want them to realize that they should be aware of those other voices.”
“Every single element of this show, there's a reason why it was chosen. Every single piece was important to someone.”
Every creative and practical decision is made by students, Lopez notes, from the chorography to the clothes on the runaway — ranging from jerseys and jeans to glamorous ball gowns to frog costumes (they make sense in context) — to the evening’s soundtrack, which pulls from both classic artists such as James Brown and contemporary performers like Kendrick Lamar.
“Every single element of this show, there's a reason why it was chosen,” Lopes states. “Every single piece was important to someone.”
It takes a little bit of courage to make that voice heard, says the longtime performer. It’s a good thing, then, that they find that courage in each other.
Andrea Cortes ’26, president of the MSU, has been through that journey first-hand. “Extravaganza is a very big and exciting way for students to express themselves, but it’s also a way to show their confidence,” says Cortes, Lopez’s co-scene lead for the Action/Superhero section. Performing in the show as an admittedly shy sophomore student helped her break out of her shell. Now, as MSU’s president, she helps spark that transformation in others.
This is the first Extravaganza for Matthew Vicenti ’28 as well, who was so excited to be playing Miles Morales, the main character of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and its sequels, that he wore his costume throughout the dry-run as well as the dress rehearsal.
Vicente was recruited to the show by Cortes, who was his counselor during 4MILE. He’sthrilled by the community he’s found — and inspired by what they’ve been able to accomplish together. “Everyone feels confident in themselves because you put a lot of work behind this,” he notes. “We know what message we want to share personally, and we all trust each another.”
“It’s been a lot of long nights,” he admits, “but it’s also been the most fun I’ve had at college so far. Getting to be able to put on different outfits, come out and walk, meet new people, and make new friends has been monumental for me. I want to do this for the rest of my four years here at my university.”
Here are just a few moments from Extravaganza 2025:
