April Blog. Annual Day

April: Annual day

April was a good month. We had annual day, Emily's birthday and the start of our summer holidays. The first part of the month was filled with dance practice for annual day and boring exam invigilation. I had one dance I did with 5 other girls which was classical Indian dance. I played the heroine in the dance which was nerve-racking, but cool. I did have to dance in a saree, which was a bit restricting, during the final performance. However in the other two dances I did, this time with Emily, Jo and a lot of 9th class girls, we wore different outfits. In the prayer dance we did, we were given these weird green, half salwar kameez-half wrap around sarong outfits. It would have been better for us if they had done them to our size or at least put the clasps on the blouses, but they didn't so we were constantly adjusting and readjusting our clothes; pinning the whole dress together with safety pins. For this dance we also had to hold two lit clay pits as we paraded around the small stage. We had to balance on one foot a lot, but it was very difficult as; our outfits were falling out of place constantly, the stage was made up on that day, unevenly, with ​splintery wood & hastily covered with a sac-like material carpet, there was sharp nails jutting out of the floor AND we were holding flaming pots which were getting hotter and hotter the longer we held them. That dance could have gone better lets say. 

Our 'make-up' for the night was done precariously by some old, sweaty, hairy guys. The backstage area was so boiling that the thick, ugly eyeliner, the painted on black eyebrows and the crimson smudge that was the 'lipstick', were running down our cheeks like our own bodies wanted rid of the offence caused to our faces. Then they caked us in pinky-white paint. They colour was so unnatural that we all looked like ghosts that had done some heavy exercise. I hated it. It made me itchy so I removed it after the first dance (the clay pot one). Then it came to our hair. I already have long, black hair so they just added a bit of an extension to mine and plaited it, so I had hair that flowed past my bum. Jo and Emily on the other hand do not have black or long hair, so they had to wear wigs. Apparently they were very heavy and they didn't look fun at all. This prayer dance we did however doesn't match the disaster of our final Bhangra dance...

The Punjabi Bhangra dance we did, Jo, Emily and I played boys. That meant we had to wear a turban, a painted-on moustache, weird wrap around trousers that you had to tie together, a bright orange shirt and a glittery green waist coat. We looked dashingly handsome if I do say so myself. I only wish our performance matches our good looks. During the fast-paced dance Jo managed to loose her turban and Emily not only dropped a girl during a lift/spin, but her trousers unravelled a bit to reveal her legs to the audience. The dance master was quick to adjust them though. These 'trousers' were really restricting and frequently unfolded/unravelled to reveal some calf or shin. I was repeatedly catching the bottoms of mine while I was dancing. It was preventing me getting into the groove so to speak. I don't blame the boogie, I blame the trousers. Damn trousers caused nothing but trouble! Even with all our mistakes and malfunctions we finished on time and recieved a good reception, even if it was just pity claps.

All in all though it was an enjoyable evening. It stressed me out until I had an emotional breakdown, but my make up was smeared down my face anyway, so no problems there. You couldn't even tell the difference. The night was so hectic I managed to lose my shoe. Just one of my shoes. I looked for it everywhere. I even searched for it in a cow shed, but no luck. My only explanation for its' disappearance is that it must of seen our Bhangra dance and left. In the end though I just bought a new pair of shoes and moved on with my life. So all is good. :)