Kahaani has been an activity/ event that I have participated in since the 9the grade. This year Priyanka and I had made the decision to audition to be dance leaders. We planned, and collaborated and were given the chance to lead a dance. Leading in Kahaani came with many challenges, people not showing up, unexpectedly quitting, getting COVID, and time management. However, it was incredibly rewarding. Our dancers picked up the dance really well during our short practices and performed beautifully.

Leading with a partner helped improve my collaboration and communication skills as we had to decide music, choreo, formations, costumes, everything really in a way that both of us were happy with the choice.

Priyanka and I signed up to become Kahaani leaders. We had to be proactive and organised making time to choose the music, choreo the dance etc. Even though we had a two-week break to do the majority of the planning and preparation there was a lot of other things which also had to be done. EE’s, essays, college apps, etc, as such both Priyanka and I had to compromise and find a time that would work for both of us in order to do the work we had to. During this process another challenge that we faced was a compromise, deciding on a theme, songs, and dance steps was a challenge at times because we sometimes had different ideas of what we wanted to have done. However, I feel that we did a good job of compromising and collaborating.

When we get back to school our practice starts on Wednesday and we have to try and split our group of 18 dancers (20 including us) into groups for the different songs. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, some of our ideas for formations and grouping would not be very feasible so we have to do some brainstorming. Kahaani this year also has a very short deadline and it is going to be a challenge to balance dance leader responsibilities with the ton of other work we have to do. However, I am confident we will be able to do it. Due to the short timeline of this years kahaani performance, we also have to ensure that dancers are able to learn the entire dance properly.

Our dance is the first dance and our theme is to be an introduction to kahaani and voice of world. Our songs and on the slower side and the steps are more cute/ sweet. We are very happy with our allocations because we feel that having mostly grade 12 dancers serve as an advantage because they would be able to pick up the dance steps quickly and would likely be more confident. Overall we are very excited to get started on the process of teaching our dance and preparing for these years kahaani performance.

Participating in Culturama India this year was a very beneficial experience for me. The people in the dance group I was in were really friendly and supportive. The dance leaders were also amazing. As I am going to be a Kahaani dance leader I feel that I was able to learn a lot about how to lead a dance. Some of the things I learnt was to be patient and to split the dancers into groups. I also think that organisation was a very important skill that the leaders showcased, they came to each session with a plan of what we were going to do that. As enjoyable as culturama was this year I also think it was an interesting experience. Due to the pandemic, there was large importance placed on safety and distancing. I also think that with other important projects going on at the same time it was a challenge to prioritise dance. I feel like culturama was a CAS highlight for me because I was able to dance with my friends and I really enjoyed the music and steps.

#LO2 #LO5

Yesterday was my first Culturama practice for culturama India. I really enjoyed the process of signing up and the audition process. I was slightly nervous during the auditions but I am excited to work with the rest of the team in preparing for the final performance. Dance and culturama, from my past experience, has taught and helped me to work on my Collaboration skills as all the dancers need to be in sync and work together to make sure the dance looks nice. Dance is also a challenge for me because of the nerves that come with performing on stage however every time I perform I become slightly less nervous. I also feel that the style and skill level of the dance in this years culturama is much more challenging. For example, the Bhangra uses a lot of energy and is a very upbeat dance however, I am not a particularly energetic person and I find it challenging to perform with a lot of energy. It is very important to me that I try to emulate that energy in the dance as it is key to the style of dancing and will make the performance look more lively and enjoyable. As I am in grade 12 and am really busy, sue to other commitments (Other activities, service, EE, IA’s, assessments, UNI things) I also want to manage my time effectively and show my commitment and resilience. Because I want to do this dance and work with a team I have to make sure that I can do my best and give the dance the attention t that it deserves.

#LO5, #LO4, #LO2

Singapore evolving Covid-19 situation has caused schools to go back to home-based learning. As school’s have been shut down so have activities. Though I can no longer Physically attend Yoga sessions I am using this time at home to do more Yoga. I feel that the yoga I have been doing at home has to help me feel better and give me a break from staring at the screen the whole day. This is a very stressful period, IA’s, EE, and just general studies. I think yoga has been a form of mindfulness that makes me focus on my mental and physical wellbeing. I am following yoga YouTube videos and just doing general stretches and exercises.

#LO1, #LO2, #LO4

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g-D0-cvDfRkvzHtUw4NQtE7EQkJNaeg6/view?ts=609fb97f

#LO1, #LO3, #LO5, #LO6

#LO1, #LO3, #LO6.

Season 3 Service Reflection

• Planned and created a pickup zone for our plants for a better organisation to help people pick it up. This collection zone was made with the aim to help our service partners know where to pick and drop plants and pots. (#LO3)
• We also started working in bigger pots so that we could work achieve our goal of ethical consumption. We put larger tomato plant, mint, and sunflowers which allowed us to have a sustainable replenishable source. The seed industry has a monopoly and there is no ethical consumption under capitalism…. so we decided to try and create our own seeds. This was successful for the passionfruit plants in the beginning which we grew from the fruit by cleaning and picking individual seeds. We are finding a way to do this long-term as there are issues regarding watering the plants during holidays. For example, after exam leave, I visited the garden yesterday and saw that our sunflowers were almost dead. (#LO6) (#LO7)
• We are constantly reflecting and communicating with our club members on how to improve. We do lots of projects with trial and error to see what works best for us in this climate and garden with the soil and resources we have. We are teaching the grade 9’s the basics and now they have gotten the hang of propagation. We are now trying to see/ plan how to be sustainable in the LR. (#LO5)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eXPPDKPzBBHiaCcoxghj1Uaxh4ZBRAZH/view?usp=sharing 

Shreya and my science fair video

#LO6 #LO7