Barbara Gonzalez, Grade 11
UWCEA (Moshi)
Looking back on time - before coming to UWC, one of my main hobbies was dancing. This very special interest of mine began when I was 10 years old when I started taking ballet lessons, which would accompany me for seven years of my life. Dancing gave me strength, discipline, and, most importantly, the courage of dancing in front of a wide stage. It was not only teaching me about body-movements but about life itself.
Throughout my years in Chile, I also explored other types of dances, such as contemporary and folk dance - which is one of my favorites. That's why one year ago, when I sat across UWC, I had the genuine interest and motivation to join a dance club or start one myself. Unfortunately, things turned out differently than I expected. There were no clubs established at school, and most people were not really interested in joining one.
Nevertheless, one day I started discussing this issue with one of my friends at school - Galia, and we realized that we both had a genuine passion for ballet since we practiced it for many years in our respective countries. We were not sure what to do. However, one day, we came across the opportunity of starting a ballet dancing club for primary (the first stage of formal education). We could finally put all our motivation into action.
I very fondly remember the very first day of our club. There were about eight to ten very sweet girls from 4 to 8 years of age from different nationalities: Tanzania, England, Israel, and India. It was a wonderful experience to get to know them while dancing and learning about our multiculturalism.
We've been running this extracurricular for several months now, and we aim to continue since we are truly committed to helping them improve and guide their interest wherever it might take them. We could feel all their perseverance and real commitment as we noticed that some steps were more difficult for them, but they all put their best efforts to keep trying and continue learning.
Over the months, we have been able to connect with all these little girls and with others who have also joined along the way. We also feel that this experience has helped us enormously to develop our initiatives, our leadership, and teamwork skills. At times it turned out to be a bit difficult to lead the classes since the girls could get easily distracted. However, we've learned to run the club in the best way possible. We went from being ballet learners to becoming dancing teachers.
Among the things that used to give us the most motivation to continue with the classes, was that sometimes during the week, our ballet students would see us walking around school and they'd either give us beautiful cards, run and give us warm hugs or tell us how much they truly love the club.
As weeks passed, we were able to see how they were improving and learning more and more. One of our favorite parts of the classes was the last one when we played "frozen" - and they expressed themselves freely, then we paused it, and they had to become dancing statues. We used to have a lot of fun while practicing, not only with ballet music but many other folk genres. I really miss those moments together with all of them.
This extracurricular truly connected me to my old-self for all the years practicing dancing. It has been a wonderfully unique opportunity I feel truly grateful for. One of the memories I carry with me the most, was last year before Christmas break one of the little girls approached Galia and me to thank us for everything and to tell us that we were the best ballet teachers in the world. These small moments were the ones that kept giving me the motivation to continue running the club by seeing them all eager to learn about dancing and eager to continue learning about life.
Throughout my years in Chile, I also explored other types of dances, such as contemporary and folk dance - which is one of my favorites. That's why one year ago, when I sat across UWC, I had the genuine interest and motivation to join a dance club or start one myself. Unfortunately, things turned out differently than I expected. There were no clubs established at school, and most people were not really interested in joining one.
Nevertheless, one day I started discussing this issue with one of my friends at school - Galia, and we realized that we both had a genuine passion for ballet since we practiced it for many years in our respective countries. We were not sure what to do. However, one day, we came across the opportunity of starting a ballet dancing club for primary (the first stage of formal education). We could finally put all our motivation into action.
I very fondly remember the very first day of our club. There were about eight to ten very sweet girls from 4 to 8 years of age from different nationalities: Tanzania, England, Israel, and India. It was a wonderful experience to get to know them while dancing and learning about our multiculturalism.
We've been running this extracurricular for several months now, and we aim to continue since we are truly committed to helping them improve and guide their interest wherever it might take them. We could feel all their perseverance and real commitment as we noticed that some steps were more difficult for them, but they all put their best efforts to keep trying and continue learning.
Over the months, we have been able to connect with all these little girls and with others who have also joined along the way. We also feel that this experience has helped us enormously to develop our initiatives, our leadership, and teamwork skills. At times it turned out to be a bit difficult to lead the classes since the girls could get easily distracted. However, we've learned to run the club in the best way possible. We went from being ballet learners to becoming dancing teachers.
Among the things that used to give us the most motivation to continue with the classes, was that sometimes during the week, our ballet students would see us walking around school and they'd either give us beautiful cards, run and give us warm hugs or tell us how much they truly love the club.
As weeks passed, we were able to see how they were improving and learning more and more. One of our favorite parts of the classes was the last one when we played "frozen" - and they expressed themselves freely, then we paused it, and they had to become dancing statues. We used to have a lot of fun while practicing, not only with ballet music but many other folk genres. I really miss those moments together with all of them.
This extracurricular truly connected me to my old-self for all the years practicing dancing. It has been a wonderfully unique opportunity I feel truly grateful for. One of the memories I carry with me the most, was last year before Christmas break one of the little girls approached Galia and me to thank us for everything and to tell us that we were the best ballet teachers in the world. These small moments were the ones that kept giving me the motivation to continue running the club by seeing them all eager to learn about dancing and eager to continue learning about life.
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