LO5-Demonstrate the skills and recognise the benefits of working collaboratively.
This was my first time participating in Culturama and it was an amazing opportunity and experience. Culturama was something I always wanted to take part in but never got around to putting any effort to audition for it but this year I took an initiative and went with it. I chose New Zealand as the country I wanted to audition for and I got in! I practised multiple times for my audition as I am particularly weak at dancing and singing. I chose New Zealand because of the cultural richness. I am also not very coordinated and very bad at dance so the idea of chanting the song and a slower paced dance appealed to me.
Our first practise was pretty stressful as we tried to all synchronise our movements but it proved to be impossible at the time. The next three practises we got to know each other better but also learnt to depend on each other for help. The Maori dance we were performing was a dance that told a story with hand, finger and leg movements as well as singing the song with it. The dance movements and directions were different for everyone as we all had to do different movements with our partners and it proved to be difficult to remember all of it in the first few practise sessions. I think working as a team and helping each other is what helped us overcome all obstacles and difficulties and reach our goal – to perform to the best of our abilities and enjoy it. Gaby and Holly were our dance leaders and they truly worked the hardest to encourage and motivate us while leading us with fierce determination. They brought all of us together with a common goal when we couldn’t agree on something or had problems with each other. All together I feel like our group was very harmonious and didn’t have any drama or major disagreements. We had small issues like agreeing on costumes, tattoos, showing up for practise at certain times and going the extra mile to learn the lyrics for the songs. As a group we made our own costumes and helped each other with make-up. Gaby and Holly organised separate practises for anyone who couldn’t show up to learn the songs and dance steps which always helped us stay on top of things. Having clear communication and a group chat made it easy for us to work together. We all had opportunities to voice our opinions on everything and feel like we were a part of a group, a family.
I feel like a more committed and open minded person after having this particular experience of working together and also more open to volunteering myself for more group activities. I learnt a lot about the Maori culture and sign language. The song we focused on was a happy welcome song in their culture which is not the traditional Hakka. This dance was very controversial this year as the whole group was females and not males like last year which cause backlash but it also motivated us to prove ourselves more. The adrenaline rush on stage and right after was amazing as well as all the really touching feedback. I personally did mess up some steps during the final performance but my group was there to tell me to keep going which was the most fundamental thing during this entire experience- all of us encouraging each other to just have fun and get over small mistakes. This Culturama made me PROUD!