International Dance Day 2016

International Dance Day takes place annually on April 29th. It is celebrated in many countries to try and attract attention and interest worldwide in dance. 

This year BVIS promoted dance amongst the students in a couple of ways.

In the weeks running up to International Dance Day all students prepared for a flashmob dance in PE by learning a routine that was choreographed by Year 10 students, Linh, Nhi and Minh Anh. The girls who choreographed it did a great job of making the dance simple enough for all students to learn but one that remained interesting and exciting to watch and perform.  Primary students in Years 5 and 6 were also involved in choreographing  the Primary part of the dance. The students got really involved in learning the dance and some even taught their form tutors!

On International Dance Day itself, students in KS3 took part in a morning of dance sessions. They learnt street dance, the Vietnamese Dragon Dance and learnt part of the modern stomp dance. Students did exceptionally well in all the sessions. In only 50 minutes, they were all able to master and perform some difficult routines.

Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t on our side so the final session, the whole school flash mob, had to be postponed until the following week. The dance was scheduled for Thursday and the students out did themselves. The dance looked amazing and there was a real buzz around school afterwards. We are extremely lucky that Steve in Year 11 is a talented photographer and film editor. Along with are marketing department, he kindly filmed and will edit the recordings of the flash mob to create a dance video. I know all the staff and students are looking forward to viewing the video at the end of the month.

The general consensus from students was that next year they wanted more dance! This confirms what the students faces showed, that they enjoyed experiencing the variety of dances from across the world and that as a school we have stirred the interest of many students and promoted the enjoyment of dance. I hope that students continue to enjoy and get involved in the dance ECA’s that we offer at school.

What the students thought:

“Next time we should spend the whole day so we are able to dance even better”

“The street dance was very entertaining and the stomp dancing was very powerful”

“I enjoyed that I was able to learn many kinds of new dance styles and skills”

Miss Alicia Smith- PE Teacher