As part of my creative aspect for CAS, I have chosen to participate in Culturama, while this does not count for the full requirements, I decided it would be a good experience for me to do again (As I was in Culturama in grade 10 as well). Culturama is very unique to me and allows for the school community to join in an alternative way to academics. The majority of students who participate in Culturama are not dancers and are all there for the experience and new friendships.

Entry 1: 

Today was the first rehearsal for Iran Culturama, in the beginning, I auditioned for 3 dances, Trinidad and Tobago, Spain and this one. From the start, I was not sure what to expect of this year’s Culturama as the countries were so different to the years before. The audition video for Iran was a little bit deceiving as it did not showcase the style in which we would be dancing in, therefore when we were shown the rest of the dances I was not fully convinced that it was what I liked, however, Culturama was a commitment now and I needed to make the most of the experience and people that I had with me along the way. My leaders are nice and I need to just trust the process for the rest of the time.

Entry 2: 

As we have progressed there is one dance out of the 4 that I am more interested in doing, My friend and I are doing this dance and I am happier about this. We also had a light plot that I was not able to attend due to a swim competition on the same day. However by emailing the head of dance and culturama they understood. As weeks went on with the lunchtime and extra rehearsals I was not as confident with the dance as I had missed a key practice day where lighting and placement were mapped out. As much as this wasn’t a problem for my dance leaders at the time, I seemed to have to turn up to extra rehearsals prior to the show in order to ensure that I knew what I was doing. The extra commitments outside of my Thursday lunchtimes were more on the stressful side and took up time in which I had other commitments to do with swimming and my training (Activity element).

Entry 3: 

It is the week leading up to the final performance on Thursday and they have now also added a Wednesday show, while this isn’t unexpected it does create more stress for the dances and more specifically the dance leaders themself. Monday we had rehearsal and I just finished Tuesdays rehearsal as well, this ran late and cut into a large amount of time that I should have been studying. While I was able to complete some homework I was very tired and a bit more on the stressed side. I feel as if this commitment was very smooth sailing at the beginning but ended up becoming very intensive for many.

Entry 4: 

Culturama is now over and I have completed all 3 shows, I found the experience very enjoyable but at the same time, I am happy that it is over.  This experience allowed me to develop new friendships and push myself in terms of commitment. In comparison to the year before culturama I did not enjoy this one as much, however, at the same time, I am thankful for this experience as it has developed me as a person and allowed me to be pushed into uncomfortable situations whilst knowing how to handle them well. My leaders this year for Culturama were more strict than the ones before and it showed me a different side to Culturama and essentially made me realize the amount of stress that they go through balancing all of their work and commitments as well. Going into this my friends and I auditioned for this dance together however they got into other countries on their list, therefore the people that I entered Culturama with where not my closest of friends, while I viewed this as a bad thing at the time, I was able to see that developing new connections and friendships is what half of this show is about. There was a large sence of community this year and while there were some arguments along the way, I feel as if it was a positive aspect that made us stronger. Looking into the future I have signed up for Kahaani as part of the rest of my creativity requirements for CAS and I also hope to participate in Culturama for grade 12 again as it will be my final year at UWC.

#LO3 #LO4 #LO2