Thursday, 28th March 2024

Thursday, 28th March 2024

Taking Dance to Greater Heights

20 Apr 2015

Ms Julie Katherina from Spectra Secondary School had a vision and aspired to start a Dance CCA in the specialised school for Normal (Technical) students. She wants to help them believe that they can achieve great things as long as they believed and worked hard.

After a year of intensive training and hard work, Ms Julie led her students in the Spectra’s Dance CCA to participate in the Singapore Youth Festival, under the Dance (International) category. Emotions ran high and tears of joy streamed down the faces of their teachers, instructors and parents after the performance.

To Ffion Chew Jing Wen, it was more than a performance. The dance movements were choreographed based on real-life events that students faced, and this elicited strong emotions in Ffion as she faced similar challenges in school. It was a matter close to her heart and she could relate to story behind the dance movements.  The Secondary Two student used to be a victim of bullying; she however stood up and became stronger with the help and support from her teachers, family and friends.

Dance captain, Muhamad Janiel, shared his personal struggles as well. “I saw instances of hitting, teasing and name-calling in class. At first, I did not dare to step in. Eventually, I knew I had to do something before the situation gets worse,’ shared Janiel. Inspired by his role as the protagonist who stood up for his friend, Janiel understood the dilemma and agony that the protagonist went through and translated this experience into expressions required for his performance.

‘The journey to putting everything together for the performance was not easy. Some students had negative experiences either at home or in school. As teachers and coaches, we are not only there to teach them about the technical parts of dance, but also to remind them that with the challenges they face every day as a growing adult, they have to learn to manage their fears and stress. Today, they proved that nothing is impossible as long as they hold a positive attitude and put in hard work,’ said Ms Julie.

Pulling off a performance at SYF is no mean feat, and the journey has transformed students into dance enthusiasts who look forward to participating in more competitions and performances!