I remember since the beginning of the year I heard people already talking about doing a collaborative dance performance as a grade. It was only after the mock exams that things started and plans were initiated for us to ‘compete’ in the annual Gecko Factor. In the beginning Disara and Rashmi experimented with a couple of songs that could be mashed up to form our dance routine. After complications with the final song Milo added a new song that we agreed to end on. The overall, aim was to choose the top songs from the 21st generation whilst keeping in diverse and also adding a Sri Lankan element to our dance. Once the songs were finalised Rashmi started making dance moves that would match each mashed song. The final dance planned routine went from;

• a short intro commentary with Shivanni on Sia’s Elastic Heart
• Girls group dancing to Soldier Boy
• Boys group joins in with the girls group
• we all dance to G6 on stage
• when Panda comes on, some of the boys jump off stage to continue a levelled dance sequence with the group still on stage
• Sri Lankan song come on and everyone rejoins on stage with their traditional clothing and makes a semi-circle
• we all then comes together across the stage in a line to preform the final song and shuffle out the sides of the stage
• Nehe and I jump and high fives to end the dance

We had several practice sessions after service on Thursdays as well as break and lunch times so that we were prepared and in order for no one to stand awkwardly on stage on the night. The dance routine was divided into a boys and girls group that would merge together towards the end. To be honest I thought that the dance was challenging since we had many components that made it really collaborative such as cannons and synchronised sequences. In addition, not everyone had a lot of dancing experience but nevertheless it was a fun and an enjoyable experience. There were even moments that I had to go out of my comfort zone but it was worth it at the end as it was hilarious to watch it and see pictures.

Overall it took a lot of effort from everyone to find the time, plan, and practice together for this to be performed. At the end, we managed to pull it off and I think everyone managed to learn a few moves! On the night of the performance everything went to plan. We were nervous but we did it with no mistakes (I think..) and it seemed that everyone who participated enjoyed themselves. We didn’t managed to win anything but it was fun either way.