A disco dancing birthday!!!

Performing in India is a hobby, a past time and a livelihood. Whether it be the overly dramatic Bollywood acting, the dancers in the always ‘interesting’ Kathakali dances (a local Kerala dance form), or even the Auxilium school putting on a performance worthy of a performing arts award. Sister Annie our resident principal was in a past life the event organizer for some of the greatest Roman parties and events in History. In this life she settles for creating the greatest parties and events in the Kerala school system. Even when she has school exams going on, outside invigilators keeping her busy as well as the thousands of other tasks that she takes on daily, she still takes time and a great deal of pride when organizing an event. This was no less evident when our very own program manager, Miss Ridhi Patel’s bday came around. Behind the scenes Sister Annie had been organizing gifts and performances’ from the students. And on the Friday morning she called the volunteers down for an assembly with the kids from LKG-STD2 as well as our Manipur kids.

To her dismay Ridhi was sat in the middle of the assembly hall amongst about 150 kids. As we were all seated in our appropriate spots, the kids quietly shuffling around, a hush swept over the crowd as Honey (the UKG teacher) opened up with a few kind words on Ridhi, and then happy birthday was sung with gods best wishes set upon her. There are not too many things make our leader blush this was one of those moments. Energetic, Enthusiastic and kind; words used to describe the Miss who started it all in Kerala. Then the show began! Firstly one of the UKG girls in a stunning pink dress, performing a very traditional dance, although a little shy at first she picked up the pace and had he crown clapping along. The next performance and my personal favorite was a of the UKG boys getting up to sing a mix up of the latest smash songs in India, Koliveri Di and Chammack Challo, we were laughing so hard as the boys screamed into the microphone and moved o a beat that was only felt in them (there was no music to accompany them) when they had finished copying the moves and belting out those lyrics of their Musical heroes, a couple more performances took place.

These were all incredible performance, but it was all about the final performance the DISCO DANCER!!! As the small man took the stage in his green suit, orange headband and DISCO printed in silver across his shirt. The crowd new this was going to be good and he did not disappoint. He moved with fluency and timing that was reminiscent of the King of Pop. Moving dynamically and with intensity the crowd was immediately clapping along. When the chorus came the whole crown in unison erupted, singing along “I am a disco dancer” the dancing man fed off this and finished off an amazing performance, as the crowd gave him a thank you worthy of the performance. Sister Annie you have done it again and we applaud you, its special taking the time to celebrate someone’s bday. The school has once again out done itself, it takes pride in everything that it does and has once again given us an experience to remember.

A disco dancing birthday!!!