Year 9 Dance Contest

 I am once again surprised at the vigour and ferocity that a competition can create amongst students and not a few of the staff. The fight for the Year 9 trophy* is becoming more heated as we approach the end of the year. This Friday it is the Dance contest. Each form class must present a 5 minute dance performance. Points are awarded on creativity, interpretation and technical performance. There are double points awarded for a full class participation - this at least means that it isn't just the girls and the one boy who learns tap/ballroom dancing** in each class performing. I have been drafted into performing in my class's routine to Car Wash.

There is something of an arms race going on with the Year 9 teachers as to who is going to give the most practice time and have the best class performance. Rumours are flying around of classes who have to rehearse during each PE lesson, English lesson and form time until Friday. I have been sucked into this trend and I'm spending today and tomorrow's English classes in the hall doing the dance routine.

Another problem is the fight for 'creative control'. Several of the girls are keen to choreograph the routine, they just struggle to agree on anything. One with blarg hip-hop step, another wants some jazz type step, and they get very argumentative. It has been challenging keeping them all on speaking terms with one another.

I'm wishing I had seized entire creative control now. I was plotting to get them to do a "Murder on the dance floor" routine because I like dance routines with a story/narrative structure and the 'altogether now' part is such a cool dance! However, I was initially led to believe that the dance had to be student-directed so I let them arrange their own dance. Since then I have discovered that a certain class has had their teacher arrange their entire routine. Rumour has it that this teacher is an obsessive Grease fan and has got his class doing 'Grease lightning'. My spy in the senior school says that their routine is pretty awesome. Curses!

Currently my class has dropped down to fourth place (we were first place in trophy listings end of term 2) since our disappointing performance in the Volleyball tournament. We need to win the Dance!

I shall have to get these kiddies to get their groove on this afternoon.

* The whole school culture of a trophy for the best Year 9 form class and House contests etc still eludes me a little. When I was a high school student, the only form of school spirit came in a bottle and you probably would have been murdered if you were seen dancing in front of your peers.

** I don't know why but it seems that most of the girls have taken some sort of dance lessons at some stage and many have aspirations to run Stage Challenge when they are seniors. For some reason most of the classes seem to have one boy who learns either tap or ballroom dancing. The others males claim 'they can't dance'. Is this just a local thing or is it representative of all young teenage boys in NZ. 1 in 15 is classically trained and very good at dancing and the other 14 refuse completely?