This year, I decided to join Culturama to get to know our dancing community as well as try out a different kind of activity. Japan Culturama is new this year and I thought it would be fun to participate in a dance that evolves around a culture different to mine. We are performing 3 dances – traditional, light sticks, and J-pop, which I am performing light sticks and J-pop.

Both of the dances are relatively fast-paced, especially the light sticks dance, which involves a lot of upper-body movement. This requires good synchronization and time accuracy, which are both skills that must be gained through practice.

Also, as this dance is performed as a group rather than individually, it is important to work together as a team and have the same mindset when performing. This also includes how we perform on stage overall such as being precise with our choreography as well as the correct use of props.

I learned that knowing how to cooperate together as a group from the beginning of rehearsals, all the way to our final performance on the stage was difficult, but also crucial in creating a work that is produced by many people.