Fairhaven School . Indian Dance Group, Te Puke , New Zealand (2006-2011)

Fairhaven School’s vision statement is Dream, Strive, Achieve, and that all cultures are celebrated and valued. Every alternate year we celebrate our diverse cultural make up with a School Cultural Festival Performance.

In 2006, I had  a number of Indian children in my class, so I decided to make an Indian dance optional for the Cultural Festival that year. I had always been interested in  the Indian culture with their beautiful costumes and music , and because of my experience of dance( as a dancer myself then teacher) it was a natural first step.

One of the Indian children’s parents helped me with their first dance sequence which is the Prayer Dance with deva’s( candles), followed by the Gaela Gaela dance which is a dance of happiness.

This first group was about 18 year 3 children. Most of those children formed the leaders for the following years  up to year 6.Including my  DJ who took on the responsibility of having the music ready etc, which as we were asked to perform outside of school , was a huge help to me as it freed me up to concentrate on the group organisation and choreography etc.

This group were so keen to continue to perform that we continued to practise as a group and the following year we began practising from term one and increased to about 25 children from year 3 and 4.That year we were asked to perform for the Maketū Health Hiu at the Marae and at the end of the year at our shool’s Guy Fawkes Gala.

In 2008 , interest had grown and I opened the group up to the senior school as my original group were now year 5’s.

We performed at the Te Puke 100 Year Celebration and at pre schools that have a number of Indian children and at Carter House, a retirement home. The children particularly enjoy this performance as the residents enjoy the interaction with the children as well as the dancing and costumes.

In 2009 I decided to add a Bollywood Dance to our repertoire, so we chose a popular Bollywood movie and I choreographed a dance to one of the songs in the movie called” Welcome Welcome”. We had new costumes made for the Bollywood group. The children really enjoyed this more upbeat dance .By now the group had grown to 38 children and we were being asked to perform at more venues .We continued to perform at our Gala which was our main focus.

In 2010 we performed at Te Puke’s Got Talent,Baptist Church Oktoberfest Gala ( which raises funds for the youth in Te Puke),  Fairhaven Gala and Carter House Christmas Special.

This year we added a new Bollywood dance” Jai Ho” , which was in the opening ceremony of the 2010  Olympic Games in India and means “We are Victorious”, so the children really wanted to perform to it. We had new costumes made especially.  The group has grown to 70 children. So I have had to split the group into Seniors and Middles.The Seniors perform the Bollywood dances and the Middles perform the traditional dances.

This year we have performed at the St Andrews Pre School, Te Pukes Got Talent, Tauranga Multicultural Night, Punjabi Ladies Night, Carter House World Cup Day, filmed for Mish Mash TV “Has Your School Got Talent”, Te Puke Intermediate ( in front of their peers, older brothers and sisters) and coming up our School Guy Fawkes Gala ,Carter House Christmas and Te Puke’s Christmas in the Park!

We have huge support from the Indian Community in Te Puke, they have donated many costumes and helped me this year with the choreography for the Senior Boys traditional Bhangra dance using latte sticks which were traditionally long sticks used for protection and now decorated for dance.

I am so proud of the children as they give up much of their school lunch times and after school time for rehearsals especially when I am choreographing a new dance. They cope with performing in all kinds of places and weathers!!But most importantly they are so motivated and passionate about their dance.

We have a mix of all cultures within the dance group, not only Indian children but Kiwi kids, Māori, Pacific Islander, American, Chilean, Chinese and Philippine children.Out of 70 children 26 are Indian.

They are learning all the time about themselves and others and how we can work together no matter what culture and feel valued and important, and how our performances can make a difference to someone’s day! That is why they particularly love performing for the elderly at Carter House and the young children at the pre schools.

We have really grown over 6 years and I am looking forward to continuing with these amazing children!!!