I’ve chosen to try out for Culturama this year as it will be my last year to do so and I’ve been intrigued by different styles from my birthplace – Indonesia. I have no prior experience in cultural Indonesian dance but have intermediate training in ballet; a drastically different dance form. Despite the differences, I’m hoping to find some skills from ballet in my practice sessions for the Balinese dance. By joining Culturama, I’m hoping to meet people with a similar interest in trying an ethnic dance and trying a creative activity which is also physically demanding.
For the Indonesia group, I was chosen to be part of the Balinese dance. This dance largely consists of theatric elements, precise form, and hand-eye coordination. Learning the steps was relatively similar to learning variations in ballet class. However, maintaining the correct form and getting used to the hand-eye coordination throughout the dance proved to be difficult (LO2). Practising the dance at home after each session to get used to the movements would be the most efficient way of preparing for the show. By supplementing the sessions with extra practice allowed the dance to look more fluid and put together. In the first weeks of practice, I struggled to get the correct torso and head movement right but memorising the sequence was less challenging as expected.
Closer to the show date, the dance sequence was modified to fit on the stage which caused minor confusion, yet this was solved with after-school practice. All runs went smoothly and all practices crammed the week before made every dancer feel more confident with their newly learnt ability. Personally, I have never undertaken a cultural dance before, so this was a new experience for me. I was surprised by the fact that many of the practice methods I used were similar to the ones I use for ballet class and it allowed me to grow my appreciation for dance. In addition, Culturama gave me the opportunity to work collaboratively with my friends and students from the years below. Working in a supportive group setting pushed me to show perseverance despite the growing amount of school work and other commitments (LO 4+5). Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this experience and hope to use the skills I developed in the future.
