“5,6,7,8,1,2…BREAK!”. I glanced around the dance studio, expecting to be greeted with trays of saliva inducing chicken wings and pitchers of ice cool lemonade. Instead, my fellow dancers have eagerly separated into their respective dance groups, chattering busily about the intricacies of the new choreography that had been furiously ladled on us. Anxious to mask my confusion, I scurried hurriedly after my group. This was definitely not how I imagined my inaugural dance rehearsal for Rag 2013 to be.
The first few days of dance practice were rather lonely since I was the sole representative from my House. However, it was not long before my dance partners started to include me in their conversations, enabling me to feel less isolated from the group. By the end of the first week, a spirit of camaraderie had developed between us as we shared tantalizing gossip and moaned about our throbbing muscles.
Before learning our individual segments, our choreographers sat us down to explain the thematic inspiration behind our Rag performance: “Love Out Loud”. This was to be fleshed out through the protagonist, an overworked middle-aged professional, rediscovering his childhood joys through the metaphor of toys. Initially, I was somewhat critical of whether simply reliving childhood joys would adequately capture the spirit of loving out loud. However, these niggling qualms were quashed as the storyline illuminated how even simple joys can bring the greatest love. Furthermore, the theme appeared to take a life of its own as it mirrored the sense of community being built between the dancers. All the dancers felt (and indeed, contributed to) a palpable air of care and concern for each other as the demands of the practices exhausted us.
In addition to my responsibilities as a dancer, I was assigned to a “base team” as part of the stunts component of our Rag performance. The stunts were meant to stun the audience as the “flier”, the person being lifted into the air in seeming defiance of gravity, executed dramatic poses while above ground. My base team comprised of two “lifters”, both of whom lift the flier into the air, and a “spotter” who counts both the lifters and fliers into the stunts.
After 2 weeks of increasingly intensive rehearsals, my fellow dancers and I came dangerously close to breaking point during an especially stressful stunts practice. My base team was rehearsing a stunt called a lotus which called for the flier to execute a 180° turn while being hoisted into the air. However, I was having troubles gripping onto my flier’s foot during the turn. So instead of being elegantly raised into the air, my flier was tumbling ungainly back down onto the practice mat. Frustration was rapidly upsetting my basic lifting technique and soon enough, my flier suffered another hard fall onto her front.
The remaining duration of the practice was passed with excruciating sluggishness. I was frustrated with my choreographers for assigning me such taxing stunts and doubtful that my base team would ever successfully execute them. Most of all, I was angry at myself and disillusioned with my abilities, having been thoroughly disabused of the belief that I could successfully carry out the stunts after multiple failed attempts.
Consequently, I was surprised when our choreographers thanked us for our dedication and hard work at the end of this discouraging stunts practice. They revealed an emphatic understanding of both our frustrations and doubts by recounting their own personal difficulties during last year’s Rag. Still, they had persevered to put on a Rag performance that spotlighted their pride in being part of the medical faculty. To the dismay of my aching muscles however, they took pains to emphasise that practices would only get tougher from here on out as we strived to incorporate the stunts into a seamless, uninterrupted routine complete with dance and music.
The revelation of our choreographers’ shared experiences helped put our frustrations and doubts into perspective; these were normal reactions to the challenges we were encountering. It also helped to humanize the seemingly insurmountable setbacks that we were facing.
More importantly, their sharing was a poignant reminder of why I had joined Rag: to express my gratitude at being so willingly embraced by my faculty. Coming from an international school, I had deep-seated fears that I would not fit in with my peers, most of whom had come from local tertiary institutions. My biggest reservation was being labelled aloof because of my liberal mindset—a stark contrast to the relative conservatism of the majority of students who had attended local schools. However, my housemates were tremendously hospitable and acutely keen to learn more about my vastly different experiences studying in an international school. Thus, I was overwhelmingly thankful that my housemates accepted me despite my differences.
My Rag experience has helped me understand that the journey of love is not meant to be easy. Perhaps that is what it means to “Love Out Loud”: to pursue love with an unadulterated passion despite the onerous challenges. I keenly look forward to finally unveiling all the effort we have invested in our performance on Rag Day. I sincerely hope that it will be a fitting reciprocation for the warm love that my housemates, seniors and faculty have shown me.