LETTING IT GO

Ballet Concert 

Hello once again, Wonderers! This is Dhanya and today, I will be letting everyone in on yet another interesting fact about myself. Alright. So, when I was about four years old, I joined ballet lessons with my best (and only) friend at a center near my house. It was also (literally) a stone’s throw away. So, since then, my friend dropped out but I continued on and made tons of friends along the way. Back to the point, every alternate year a concert is organized in aid of a charity. This year, the concert was in aid of the Kasih Hospice Care Society.

Our class has only four girls now (including myself) so we joined classes with a class two years junior to us and put together a dance to the ever so famous song, Let It Go. However, we decided to give it a twist and went with the version sung in 25 different languages. Our teacher, Ms. Ng, choreographed the piece and we learnt it pretty quickly. There were also tons of preparations that had to be done and decisions to be made. Our hairstyle, costume, date of the concert are just the top of the list of decisions.

The costume designed for our performance.

On the 30^th of July, we had our rehearsal at the PJ Civic Center, which also happened to be the venue of our concert. I arrived and stood around awkwardly until I found my group of friends. Also, I recognized someone I knew from school at the rehearsals. She had taken part in one of the hip - hop pieces and did extremely well. Never had I expected her to be a dancer, let alone be fantastic at it too! 

At about 8.30, we were told to get ready and begin warming up. We all ran on stage when our performance was announced by the emcee. It was all pretty much a blur as the music began playing and all I could remember was telling myself not to go blank on stage and embarrass myself. There weren’t many complications and we were done in a matter of minutes. It was about 9pm when we left after adjusting our spacing on stage once more.

Our teacher and choreographer :)

Finally, came the day of the concert. To be honest, I didn’t feel the excitement of the concert until I arrived in the dressing room. The atmosphere was buzzing with excited chatter. I had truly missed the feeling of nerves and excitement. I had already done my hair at home with the help of my mom. We had it up in a neat bun with all our hair gelled and sprayed into place. We had bought the make up to suit the theme of our dance and brought it all there to be done. 

When we arrived, one of the younger girl’s mother was already sat down and working at the makeup. One by one, she did all of our makeup and finished it off with a sprinkle of glitter in our hair. We knew that we were the 14^th performance of the day and were waiting for the intermission to begin. My entire class (four of us including myself) had been awarded with a prize for achieving a Distinction in our Grade 6 examinations the previous year. We were all overjoyed and immediately began taking photos of ourselves together. It was also the first time that all of us had received a Distinction for the same examination. 

Two of the oldest in my class.

Nervous - the first word that came to mind right before we went on stage. I took a look at everyone else and decided we might as well have some fun with this. We gathered for a group hug and waited patiently for our turn to perform. Finally, we heard our performance being announced and I imagined my mom and grandma in the audience sitting up straight and getting the camera ready for our performance. 

We waited for the cue and ran on stage at the right moment with a toothy smile plastered on our faces and from then on, it was just us dancing on stage. I think we all had a pretty amazing time to be honest. We all even shared a giggle on stage as we heard a young boy say “WOW” from the audience as we performed a special move. In a matter of minutes, we were running off stage again and I thought to myself, “I really love the feeling of my heartbeat racing”.

We gathered for another group hug then sat down to watch the last few performances. Finally, it was over and we all ran on stage again for the closing ceremony. Our parents then came on stage and took pictures of us all together and individually. I think we were all relieved it was over yet at the same time didn’t want it to be over. We gathered up our belongings and headed home. My mom ended up dragging me out for dinner with some relatives and we saw some other family friends there too. They all looked at me oddly, wondering why I was wearing such extravagant make up for dinner (it was stage makeup after all) 

One of the pictures taken at the end of the performance.

I couldn't have asked for it to be any better. I had enjoyed myself thoroughly. Through the extra hours of practice we put in and the pain and sweat it took to perfect the piece, it was absolutely worth it in the end. I was proud of all my friends and teammates. That was definitely one of the best concerts I've taken part in till this day. Alright, that’s all I’ve got for now. Adios, Wonderers!