Beauty In the Rain: Keystone Primary Dance Team’s Award-winning Performance
The soft blue lights came on, illuminating a massive performance stage. Although the 12 Keystone Primary School students only looked like delicate drops of water behind their blue umbrellas on this immense surface, they immediately captivated their audience with their sparkling radiance. Their striking aura permeated their performance, as they confidently danced the routine that they had been hard at work on for the past year. Their meticulous preparation turned into an enchanting performance, as they took home the Group Excellence Performance Award in the finals of this summer’s 18th annual Beijing Dance Competition sponsored by the Ministry of Education!
For this award-winning performance, the dance team, which includes students from Grades 3 through 5, selected a traditional folk dance of the Dai ethnic group from Yunnan Province in southern China. “This is a dance from the Dai ethnic group using umbrellas. The dance is about beauty; beauty in the rain and after the rain,” explains Shi Hang, the Primary dance teacher. She explains that the dance team had already been rehearsing this dance, that perfectly matched the theme of this year’s Beijing Dance Competition. Therefore, the team decided to enter the contest.
Although the dance team’s final performance was fantastic, the process leading up to the contest saw challenges pour down like rain. After seeing the result of the contest, it’s almost impossible to believe that several of the dancers only just began dancing this past year. Starting from the basics and working their way up to the full dance, these talented performers were able to work together to put on a fantastic show. While everything from selecting the music and dress for the dance to organizing rehearsals and performances over the summer proved to be difficult, the Keystone Primary dance team was up to the challenge!
As the Beijing Dance Competition is a huge city-wide contest, participating in it is no small feat. This year, the competition consisted of three rounds, the first two of which were online. For these two rounds, teams had to submit a video of their dances to the judges. Even though it was summer, 18 students on the Keystone Primary dance team were able to meet in the Performing Arts Center (PAC) to rehearse and record their dance. The students shown bright under the lights of the PAC, illuminating the stage with their emotional performance of the Dai dance.
The recorded performances were enough for the judges to give passing scores to Keystone, the only private internationalized school in the contest. After passing through the first two rounds, the Primary dance team was on to the finals which took place in Haidian District, Beijing. The students were both excited and nervous at the prospect of travelling to the final competition and getting to perform their outstanding routine live for the judges. The finals proved to also come with one last set of challenges. “When we arrived, we found that the stage was twice the size of PAC’s stage, and our school had the fewest number of dancers,” says Shi Hang. While most schools had as many as 50 dancers, Keystone was down to 12 thanks to summer holiday travels. The smaller number of students and the massive stage meant that this performance would be much more difficult than the one the team previously recorded.
However, as the students donned their costumes and did their makeup, their worries turned to exhilaration. They took to the stage and put on a dazzling show that wowed the judges. The 12 dancers stood out on the giant stage, performing their “Dai Hua” dance perfectly. Although preparing for the event had brought a storm of difficulties, the Keystone Primary dance team was well prepared to weather it. Even in the falling rain there is beauty, just watch the dance team’s performance to see it!
