The convocation ceremony this year was organized by the grade 12 students along with the teachers, as a pilot project. I contributed to the event by performing the opening act of the event, which was a classical dance performance. I performed Kuchipudi, it is a form of Indian Classical dance. I am a trained kuchipudi dancer, hence when the opportunity presented to give an opening act, I performed an extract from a dance recital.
For this performance, I practiced with my dance teacher for a period of 2 weeks, since I wasn’t in practice since covid 19. I practiced 3 days a week for an hour, this dance form is extremely challenging physically as it involves footwork, hand gestures, facial expressions, and hand and leg coordination. Inorder to refine my skills, I invested 6 hours of practice for this performance.
Learning Outcome 1 – Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
Due to my training of 7 years in classical dancing, and performed on other events like my aarengetram ( culmination ceremony of 7 years of training), independence day, and for the opening act of a model United nations conference. I identified my strength in classical dancing, hence decided to perform the same for the opening act.
Learning Outcome 2 -Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
Although I have done a few performance and have been trained in this dance form for several years, I had never performed in front of such a large audience of about 2000 people. The stage fright and anxiety posed as a challenge, but I dealt with it inorder to give my best for the performance.
Learning Outcome 4 – Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
Apart from my performance on the day of the event, I had to constantly prepare for the same. From regular dance practices, to music editing and preparing my opening speech. This constant preparation required dedication and commitment towards making the opening act of the convocation a success.
Overall, this experience helped me reconnect with classical dancing again and as an add on was a great way of physical workout too.
