Kahaani is a dance showcase, associated with the Kolkata Global Concern (GC) group. It supports a very meaningful cause; giving financial aid to disabled children in India with the help of the money collected through the tickets. My passion for dance was one of the major reasons for me joining this GC. So, when Kahaani came around, I embraced both my passion and the good cause and signed up to be a dance leader.I was extremely excited but not without doubt as it is a great challenge to be able to teach Indian dancing to a bunch of culturally diverse people. Besides, being new to UWCSEA, I was not very close to my seniors, many of whom were in my dance group. But I really wanted to do this, challenge myself and at the end be proud of my new achievement.
Practice was held every Monday for an hour. Initially it all went smooth. I was amazed to see how so many of them picked up on the steps even without understanding and knowing the lyrics. After the first few weeks, it started getting tougher due to time constraints. As the show came closer, people started getting nervous and it became even harder to get through the dance. As a leader, it was my duty to keep calm and help the rest feel confident. I remember on of my dancers had a slight panic attack on the day of the show and came up to me saying that he could not do it. I explained to him how he was not doing it alone and how he would be proud once he was actually done with the show. But what I remember more clearly is how well and confidently he danced!
Though we finally put up a great dance, the journey till the performance was not all sunshine. There were many lows such as slight disagreements turning into aggressive arguments, people not showing up for practice and even backing out with affected our entire choreography. But I took it in the right way and decided to look at the lows as areas of learning. I learnt to better manage my time and to be organised as in order to have a successful practice session, I had to plan it out before hand. I learnt to take the blame as I had taken up the responsibility of teaching and I could not be complaining. I developed my patience by maintaining my calm even when things weren’t working out. I learnt so much from my teammates! Some of them showed me what determination is, some proved to me that things done with a smiling face are things that are enjoyed more. And just like that, climbing through all the lows, I learnt so much and grew a lot as a person.
This experience is one of the most memorable ones not only because I had an opportunity to lead, but also because I had the opportunity to learn from so many new people. I realised that this is the most important aspect of leading; teaching but also learning willingly.
