Today was the first dancing practise for the International peace night. After a hot and sunny day of school, I was not too determined for a training session. Luckily, there was no dancing practise today, just an explanation of the dance performance we will be doing and organising the days which we were free in order to practise. The group was decided to be 4 people, A Japanese exchange student (Karin), a year 10 student (Takashi), Georgia Zheng (Our leader of the group) and lastly me. We planned out that we would meet up every week after school on a Wednesday.
The challenge was the we did not have much time for practise until the performance night and also we were worried that school work could possibly overlap with trainings and practises, hence why we were rushing things. We all agreed that this will end up possibly unfinished and the worst way, or perform a magnificent outspending performance. Today was the first moving lesson with our dance group. It was quite useful that Georgia had already learnt all of the moves and the performance before hand, as it made it more easier for us to learn rather than trying to learn from scratch.
Georgia taught us the first couple of moves of the performance and I think we picked it up reasonably well. The timing and the formations that we need to be in were all incomplete, however this will be done at the end as the final step. It was very important that we practise at home by ourselves going through the movements, because it was quite a complex dance and remembering the moves are essential in order to progress to the step moves for the next session. We practised behind the international office as we would also view the dance on youtube, as Georgia was not too sure with some of the movements.
All in all, today was not a bad training day for a first go. Today we went through the next few moves, moving ahead after last times session. I noticed that the moves were soon becoming much more difficult and was pressured by this. I also have a chemistry test tomorrow with Georgia, so we only trained for about 45 minutes instead of an hour. However within this 45 minutes of training, I was disappointed as I was not able to remember the movements that we learnt today because I was very nervous of the Chemistry test. So I decided to quickly revise for my test and then went through the movements I had learnt today at night in my garage.
It was easier than expected to learn off youtube because I realised the dance on the clip was mirrored, rather than being face on with the dance. At the end of the day, I was able to complete my task of remembering the dance moves up to the point required. I believe todays lesson lacked teamwork and communication, however I was able to initiate my own activity at home which i think was very beneficial. Today we went up to half way of the whole dance performance within a 1. 5 hour period, however just accomplishing half way was amazing.
I imagined that it would take a lot longer however thanks to Georgia’s useful teaching method of following along with her actions, we re now half complete. I noticed that Takashi was struggling with a lot of the moves, so I decided to meet up with him afterwards and correct some of his struggling points. I believe that this was an ethical implication I made, as it is all part of team work and communication and trying to help each other in order to accomplish the same goal, which was to finish the performance on the stage in front of the audience to show our appreciation towards internationalism and the cultures within society.
I believe that we as a group and team were engaged and determined, very focused at trying to learn and accomplish the dance movements. Georgia was also quite impressed with my dance moves as she had never seen me dance before. I was trying very hard to copy georgics movements and to make my performance more effective. After coming back from a karate tournament, i had missed a couple of lessons of the dance performance. I was very very stressed because we only had a couple of weeks until the performance and I had only learnt half of the dance.
Also, I was behind with the school work and assignments hence why i need to be organised from this point onwards the use my time wisely in order to accomplish everything. It was very thoughtful of my team that they each tried to help me out with the moves I needed to learn. Takashi was still confused with some of the movements so we worked together to try and complete the dance. I decided to do some dance practise at home for the next couple of days so that i could really catch up and get back on track, ready to run through the whole performance over and over with the whole team in the next dancing session.
This was planning and initiating my activity, trying to prepare at my potential. Today was the day where we went through all of the movements of the performance and really tried to get in tim with each other. Luckily from my training in the past few nights, I have now completed remembering the whole performance, and everyone in my group was impressed. From this step onward was all about getting in time, knowing our positions and formations while being in sync with the music in the background. e are able to get in time with each other at the end of todays session, however there were still parts that we muddled up and had to retry from the start. Although eventually we were able to go through the performance with great flow and timing with the music. The whole team worked together as a team and persevered to accomplish the whole dance and we did which showed our determination. From this point onwards was just to really go through the performance over and over so that we barely make any errors and trying to accomplish perfections in each of our performances, polishing the dance as a team. Today was a very nervous but exciting day.
Today was the first time we performed in front of a group of people. Not only a group, but the whole of the middle school of Kristin. About a couple of days ago, we received an invitation from the middle school principal asking if we would like to perform in front of the middle school assembly in order for them to understand and appreciate the entertainment and culture of different countries and society. At first, we were thinking of denying, because we thought that the time that we have put into this performance is quite minimal, and would require a little more time for a full confident performance.
However the day before the assembly, we figured that doing the performance first go for the international peace night on stage would not be great in terms of the confidence, where as one major practise before hand would lessen the pressure for the IPN. Hence we decided to try our best and perform in front of the middle school stage which we did. Overall, we did an excellent job. There were a few minor errors by Takashi which he dropped the fan at one point, however was able to cleanly recover and reach the finish of the performance with a huge applause from the school students.
This was a very wise ethical implication that we made, as if we did not perform today, I probably would not be feeling the confidence when going up onto stage for the IPN performance. Tonight was the official IPN night. I have already performed the opening dance performance along with the singing event with Jack. My remaining part of the night was the dancing performance with the three other members. I had quite a lot of time after my singing performance before we would go up on stage.
Th female members would spend time on their make up and beauty whilst Takashi and I would dress up into our Japanese Cultural dresses called “Happi ?. From about 15 minutes before our performance, we would run our performance together to get in timing and sync with each other and feel the movements. It was unfortunate as we were only allowed to be in back stage and could not be noisy, hence we could not play the music while our practice. This made it very difficult because we were not able to practice at our best and would have to be in sync with the music on stage.
When we went on stage, we were nervous but excited at the same time, as we knew from yesterdays performance that it would be a magnificent and an outstanding one. We were successful with every move, and were perfectly in time with each other and the music. There were no mistakes whatsoever, and all we could hear at the end of our performance was cheering and a great applause from the audience. The second day as well, we showed a magnificent performance, except it was unfortunate that Karin dropped the fan once.
However because the audeince could see the intensity and difficulty of the movements, everyone would cheer just as much as yesterday. It was a memorable performance which everyone appreciated. The portrayal of the asian culture was clearly shown and respected by the audience. It showed internationalism and the audience felt appreciation of the asian culture being present in New Zealand, showing peace and respect within our society. Singing Today was the first day I attempted to start focusing on singing for the preparation for my performance in the IPN performance event.
I was still on planning stage, as I had a selection of songs that i could pick from, however the problem was the because they were all in Japanese, It was hard to decide which song was the best to sing. For this performance, I would like to make a huge impact on behalf of the Japanese culture and history. Hence why I have made the singing a theme of the Japanese earthquake that struck almost 3 years ago from now on. This devastating event that has occurred is memorable and disastrous, which should allow the audience to be drawn into the performance.
Todays lesson was not bad however could have been better, as I have no one else to work with, just individual work. I found out that it was much easier to manage and develop when it is group work because the communication and teamwork is present. Over the past few days, I have been thinking of which song, and have finally come to a conclusion of singing the song “even if.. I will live on. ” This song is by a Japanese artist EXILE ATSUSHI. Recently I have been a very big fan of Atsushi, as his songs are very modern with deep meanings portraying emotion from the lyrics of the songs he sings.
I picked this song because half way throughout the music, there is a turn over in the atmosphere, from saddening to happiness hence fitting in with my theme of the earthquake, that even if something disastrous like this happens, we still live on and persevere through the help of others. I was not too sure of the lyrics at this stage, however I am constantly listening to this music in order to catch the mood, feeling and atmosphere which arises from this unique song. My friend also came along and listened to the song, and he also says that the music is very deep and meaningful.
The song really emphasises on the global importance and that peace is necessary within society in order to comfort each others lives, hence internationalism. Today, I figured out that I required a pianist within my performance, because there were no soundtracks of the track, and also the actual music is with the piano, and Jack Liu has kindly offered me to become my Pianist for the performance, as he will be using as a CAS major as well. Also the performance overall should be better because the sound of the vocal and the instrument will be pure and live.
Today we went through the first section of the music and jack Liu was already getting the hang of the song with the piano. However because we had never practised before, we would sometimes be out of timing or Jack Liu would miss a couple of lines. Todays lesson was really short, however because we were able to work together, almost a quarter of the music, we completed today. I also have another idea in mind that couple help the performance become more effective, which was to do a slide show in the background of our performance.
And the benefit of this was that because the audience will not be able to understand the Japanese language, the emotion and the graphics in the slide show background will really get the message through, and also with the emphasis on the global important such that it is not language, however simply emotion and feelings that allow people to connect and communicate with others. Today, I have started on the slide show for our performance, and it was a very great experience for me because I am not a technical person making it a mission or a challenge.
With the aid of help from my parents, I was able to progress quickly rapidly with the slide show. The slide show was all about the Japanese Tsunami and Earthquake which occurred 3 years ago, including raw and live footages of the tsunami and earthquakes in action whilst people are having a traumatic experience. Today I finished the draft of the first half of the performance, which was around 2 minutes long. This was well integrated into the music performance in terms of the timing and the theme. I also now remember pretty much the whole lyrics of the song, although sometimes confused. ack Liu also worked hard to memorise the whole script piece for his piano, so we were getting closer and closer to completion. However we did not have much time, and I had other important tasks to accomplish such as school tests, assignments and my other IPN dance performance. We were in a hurry, however we did have a feeling within us that when we achieve to prepare for this singing performance, It would be one of the best ones within the whole IPN night. Since about 3 days ago, I have been working desperately to finish our presentation in the background, and today I have finally accomplished finishing it.
The result was amazing. Very emotional and catching towards the audience. I have showed a couple of friends who are unable to come to the IPN night, and they were all in tears full of emotion and sympathy for the event which struck japan. In my perspective, the turn over point of the presentation makes the presentation very effective. With a change in emotion from sad and misery into hope due to the support by others, It really shows that “even if ¦ there is a traumatic experience and there are some of those who have lost their lives, we still live on through the support of others’.
Because we have now finished the presentation, it was now purely up to me and Jack to be in sync with each other and reduce the errors made. We decided that by next week (which is a week before the IPN night), that we would fully remember our script, be in correct timing and also to practise and practise so that it will not be embarrassing however a special performance from us on the IPN nights. Jack Liu and I were here at the IPN final practice, that day before our final.
Jack and I were quite nervous because we had never run the presentation along with our performance, although we were okay with making any mistakes because it was only a practice session. When we went up on stage, we realised that there were not many seats, hence not many people watching our performance. This allowed us to be less nervous and do our performance. During the performance, we did not make any mistakes in terms of my vocal, Jacks Piano and our timing. The only problem was the presentation, and we realised that we had been performing at a faster tempo than usual.
The cause of this was because of our nervousness and hence rushing to finish. What we needed to do on tomorrows night was to put more feelings and confidence into our performance so that we would perform at the right timing. Jack and I decided to go to the music room after our practice session and repeat our performance so that we would not feel as much pressure for tomorrow. Today is the final night of day 1. I have already finished my opening dancing performance with the rest of the Japanese club members successfully.
For preparation of Jack and My performance, we went alone into the music room and trained ourselves for the right conditions. Hence I would make sure my voice is loud, crisp and clear whilst jack would warm up his fingers by repeating the song on the piano over and over. However because jack has his solo performance before our team performance, Jack was feeling very nervous because he had to prepare two songs. I felt very nervous before going up, however because I knew that if our performance was successful, the audience would be astonished.
Hence Jack and I went on stage with great motivation and pride and we performed with all our effort and show our best. After our performance finished, the presentation continued and realised that we were in perfect timing and went smoothly with the video on the screen. After our presentation ended, all we could hear in the back stage was crying with a huge applause. After our performance, my Japanese teacher came to the back stage full of tears, and congratulated jack and I for the magnificent performance.
Our second day also went really well, and both Jack Liu and my parents came to watch our performance. After each night’s performances, we would receive feedback from the audience saying that our performance was one of the best throughout the night, and made everyone cry and really appreciate internationalism and the past events from a different culture that needs to be remembered with respect to be shown to. At the end of each night, Mr Clague (Executive principal of Kristin School) mentioned our performance and commented that internationalism is much more important than education and school work.
