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WHAT IS KAHAANI?
Kahaani is a dance show run annually, with a focus on Indian dancing. There are many separate dances within the showcase, all choreographed and taught by the students in UWC. The overall show, however, is run by the Kolkata GC, with the aim to raise awareness and funds (through the tickets sold to watch the performance) for their grassroots partner, Voices of World (VOW). VOW is a non-profit social welfare organisation situated in India. Their main goal is to battle social stigma surrounding those with disabilities. Furthermore, they take actions by offering training of skills and education to thousands.
The show spreads awareness not only through shedding light on the GC itself and issues at hand, but by uniquely incorporating a meaningful story into every years dances. The story this year follows that of Cinderella, however, our princess has a disability – and the story follows her meeting with the prince, as in the fairytale, but rather progresses as he learns to overlook her disability and see her as an equal. The story is both entertaining and aims to provoke reflection for the audience, how do they view those with disabilities? and how we can all overcome stigma.
This year, 2018, we have the largest Kahaani cast yet! As everyone signs up for a day and everyone gets in. I’m allocated to Monday rehearsals, being the first dance – in which we have 3 dances within ours to learn. In our dances, we will be introducing the prince!
THIS IS LITERALLY THE FIRST REHEARSAL WE’VE HAD.
And it’s like 5% of the whole dance. Geez. I’m the one in the middle with the gray hoodie on. As you can see, I was very energetic last Monday. Haha. Hah.
STARTING OFF
Skills required and to be developed!
To keep practicing, keep going, even when it gets hard and frustrating to do the moves right (especially as there are so many TINY actions, such as a kick or the way a hand is pointed… I know from my experience last year that Indian dancing specifically is very difficult because it’s so technical in every way and so precise in every movement)
It’s all about helping one another! Giving each other advice so that we can all improve, running through steps and supporting one another, as it’s not an easy dance, and in the end – it’s important to all have fun together learning it!
Be present on time every Monday lunch, and any other rehearsals (we already might have an extra rehearsal on Friday)! Also, putting a lot of my time and efforts outside these rehearsals to practice and get the moves right! Because there’s a LOT to remember…
IT’S OVER!
Both shows went really well, and a lot of my friends came to watch us! Overall, I’m really happy with how it turned out. During the entire process, my friends and I became really demotivated because we didn’t necessarily like the choreography of the dance and it overall looked too messy and uncoordinated. However, with a lot of dedication, we changed a lot of the dance, and we all had a lot of input to give. I’m also really happy that everything actually came together in the end and I’m really proud of all of us for putting in our best efforts and having a great time with it.
LEARNING OUTCOME 4 Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
Students demonstrate regular involvement and active engagement in CAS.
I showed a lot of commitment to this activity, apart from one rehearsal, I attended all others punctually or early – even on weekends or after school.I feel that I was really dedicated, even when not everything was going well, I was dedicated to improving myself and helping get out dance together and helping others, such as teaching Alua and Stef in our spare time.
LEARNING OUTCOME 5 Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively
Students are able to identify, demonstrate and critically discuss the benefits and challenges of collaboration gained through CAS experiences.
Being a team effort, there was a lot of collaboration needed to make everything work out. With so many students, I helped teach a lot of my friends the dance who couldn’t attend many of the meeting, and vis versa, my friends would help remind me of moves and practice the steps with me.
We also all gave input into the dances to help find formations, choreography, etc. This using creativity where all of us had to try see it come together. And together we made it how it was! This definately made things easier on everyone, made everyone happier having some input, and made the whole process much faster and more time-efficient! This also required a lot of communication, where we all spoke up, gave opinions to improve and voted on ideas. Of course, there were times people conflicted a lot, and we had some issues with some students being really demotivated and uncommitted – skipping lots of rehearsals and throwing blame on to the dance leaders. However, I think the way the rest of us worked together is what allowed us to overcome these barriers, conflicts and set-backs, and realise that those of us who wanted it would put in the effort to love the dance and try our best.
Finally, there was that really great level of collaboration experienced backstage, where everyone would just come together to help one another in the simplest ways that made all the difference and really showed what it meant to be a team. For example, we would do different areas of each others makeup that we were good at, help one another with our outfits, hair, etc. This was all really sweet and it showed how by working together and just simply helping one another, we can all look and feel our best, and save lots of time!
AS A RESULT, I made a lot of great friends from other grades that I normally wouldn’t talk to, such as Seb. And I got much closer to many of my friends that I wouldn’t usually get to see as much being busy with IB or in the great above, such as Stef, Isa, Alua, Vidhushi, Sidney and Remy.
Finally, I appreciate learning how the mindset of going into something to have fun rather than impress makes all the difference. As it was for a good cause anyways, we were doing it soley for that purpose – and knew that therefore we had the reason to put in so much effort. And in the end after so many ups and downs, we deserved to just have fun with the dance and show! 🙂
DEC 2019, KAHAANI Grade 12
I’m not sure if this counts as a CAS reflection but thought it was important anyways… I signed up for Kahaani this year and was looking forward to it considering it is our last year. I got into a wonderful dance, and I loved the choreography and song, and was in a great group with many of my good friends. However, I attended the first 3 practices on Monday lunch, but in the next two weeks, I was sick both Mondays with an on and off fever. Considering I had missed quite a few days of school too, I was really, overwhelmed with work and stressed, and considering I needed to attend the dance sessions and also learn and make up for the last 2 sessions. Anyways, I decided to drop out of the dance even though I was quite upset about it being our last year before graduation. But I think it was the best decision for me, and because it wouldn’t be fair to everyone committed to the dance and the two students running the dance to then have someone taking up their extra time to teach me what I missed 🙁 Somewhat I think it applies to LO7 with the ethics of decision making – because I considered how my choice would effect others and that it would be best to drop out because I’m definitely too overwhelmed with work to focus on kahaani.
