Dancing the night away...
Who would have ever thought that “the fan” would be brought to this rural area up in the mts in Uttaranchal Pradesh?? (The fan is a “raas step” that Rah and Resh brought over from Chicago, and that our dance group made famous out on the West Coast). Ha ha… the crowd didn’t go as crazy as they did back in the days of our prime…. However, MOST of the students did say that they enjoyed watching the raas/garba the most out of all the acts in the program!
Every year, at the end of the school-term, they have an Annual Day Program – this year it consisted of two dramas, four dances, group song, a few solo songs, a few speeches (about the student’s experiences, etc.), awards ceremony, and some other things… So, here I was… king of culture shows, involved w/ another one out here! Overall, I wasn’t a big fan of the way it was organized – some kids were in 3 items – other kids weren’t in anything. Out of the 75 students at this school, I would estimate that half participated and half did not. The teachers decided who would be in what. I’m all about giving everyone a chance… especially when they’re still kids, and their self-confidence is so fragile. A lot of time, the kids that are good at things have self-confidence… and they continually get positive reinforcement… and their self-confidence (ego) continues to inflate. Those kids with low self-confidence usually experience negative reinforcement or indifference… which further lowers their self-confidence. Schools, often, seem to widen the gap that already exists….
Anyways… so I was involved w/ choreographing two dances – 1) The garba/raas to some song that I didn’t know and 2) Hindi film dance to “Ghana Ghana” from Lagaan. Most of the same kids were in both dances. We had to do some crisis management at the end – one of the boys, the day before the program, decided he didn’t want to practice. This kid has a really hot temper (maybe, kind of like I had when I was younger… and still to some degree now) and for 3 straight days, he would angrily leave practice in the middle. I would never even able to pinpoint the reason why he was angry. I, and other teachers and students, tried talking to him about it, but he wouldn’t talk to us and he would just run off. On the day before the program, he said he didn’t want to be in it… and ran off. I thought he was all talk, and that he would do it. But the other teachers told me that he’s done this before… and that he WON’T do it. Sooo, on the day before the show, we had to teach another boy both dances. Overall… not a big deal… the program wasn’t anything professional… about 100-125 people were watching. And now, we’re going to re-do the program in 3 different villages as well. I still have to talk to the boy who got upset...
It’s always fun being involved with dancing, though!
There were about 50 5th-7th graders staying here the 3 nights before the program, as well. One night was all just singing and dancing folk songs of this region (called Jaunpur). I’m trying to learn their Jaunpuri folk dance… it’s pretty cool. They all sing while they dance as well (no CD’s)… the boys and girls sing back-n-forth, and the steps go along with the words. It’s pretty sweet.
Sooo… overall… lot of singing and dancing going on in my world… so, don’t worry… it’s not only discussions about the “understanding of reality”. =)
Every year, at the end of the school-term, they have an Annual Day Program – this year it consisted of two dramas, four dances, group song, a few solo songs, a few speeches (about the student’s experiences, etc.), awards ceremony, and some other things… So, here I was… king of culture shows, involved w/ another one out here! Overall, I wasn’t a big fan of the way it was organized – some kids were in 3 items – other kids weren’t in anything. Out of the 75 students at this school, I would estimate that half participated and half did not. The teachers decided who would be in what. I’m all about giving everyone a chance… especially when they’re still kids, and their self-confidence is so fragile. A lot of time, the kids that are good at things have self-confidence… and they continually get positive reinforcement… and their self-confidence (ego) continues to inflate. Those kids with low self-confidence usually experience negative reinforcement or indifference… which further lowers their self-confidence. Schools, often, seem to widen the gap that already exists….
Anyways… so I was involved w/ choreographing two dances – 1) The garba/raas to some song that I didn’t know and 2) Hindi film dance to “Ghana Ghana” from Lagaan. Most of the same kids were in both dances. We had to do some crisis management at the end – one of the boys, the day before the program, decided he didn’t want to practice. This kid has a really hot temper (maybe, kind of like I had when I was younger… and still to some degree now) and for 3 straight days, he would angrily leave practice in the middle. I would never even able to pinpoint the reason why he was angry. I, and other teachers and students, tried talking to him about it, but he wouldn’t talk to us and he would just run off. On the day before the program, he said he didn’t want to be in it… and ran off. I thought he was all talk, and that he would do it. But the other teachers told me that he’s done this before… and that he WON’T do it. Sooo, on the day before the show, we had to teach another boy both dances. Overall… not a big deal… the program wasn’t anything professional… about 100-125 people were watching. And now, we’re going to re-do the program in 3 different villages as well. I still have to talk to the boy who got upset...
It’s always fun being involved with dancing, though!
There were about 50 5th-7th graders staying here the 3 nights before the program, as well. One night was all just singing and dancing folk songs of this region (called Jaunpur). I’m trying to learn their Jaunpuri folk dance… it’s pretty cool. They all sing while they dance as well (no CD’s)… the boys and girls sing back-n-forth, and the steps go along with the words. It’s pretty sweet.
Sooo… overall… lot of singing and dancing going on in my world… so, don’t worry… it’s not only discussions about the “understanding of reality”. =)
posted by Raj Kanani | 10:23 PM
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