The school-wide Song and Dance Festival is by far the grandest, most significant entertainment event at KDI School. With roughly 200 students from over 50 different countries, the festival brought together over 50 unique cultures from Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe. Filled with a group of students, the Dean, Associate Deans, professors, KDI School staff performing the allemande dance, pomading, bouncing, swinging and singing to the content of their hearts, this was a once-in-a-year event organized by KDI Schools administrative staff on July 8, 2016.

Acknowledging the intensity of KDI School’s summer semester, the Dean announced in his opening speech, “you need a break from the studies and we have organized this event to relieve you of some of the academic pressure. We promise, you won’t be disappointed.”

The entire room was filled with fiddles, pianos, guitars, different melodies in the different African, Asian and Latin American dialects.  Bringing the popular k-pop dance of Korea to the auditorium was the group called the Smart Tables and KDI School Pop. The Saman dance also known as “the dance of a thousand hands” of Indonesia was performed by the Samaners. Additionally, the Azonto, Makosa, Masai and Kigodoro dances from the all over the African continent including Cameroon, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, were performed by the Power Girls and the African Rhythm Groups. The Salsa, Tango, Bachata dances, the oriental and belly dances of Latin America as well as Egypt were meshed together by a Mexican and Columbian duo. The Debke of Palestine, the Bharatnatyam of India, the Dhandi Jehun of the Maldives, the folk dance of Vietnam were performed by the Culture Hotspots Group”. The festival also included some mad guitar skills from Korea’s Bruce LEE and Cote d''Ivoire ’s Joel.  The golden voices of Korean GMP students, the Southeast Asian Shades of Light a.k.a Men in Black, D-Trio and Cote d’Ivoire’s  DJ Soro  and Joel embraced the audience.

Taking first prize, and KRW 500,00 in prize money, was the choir of GMP students, who sang a beautiful Korean song in harmony and intonation while wearing the Hanbok dress characterized by its vibrant colors. The group was led by a very professional choirmaster, Lewis KWON, and in the background, Korea’s rich history played on the big screen indicating the hardships of the Korean War to modern day Korean’s growth miracle.

In second place was another Korean group, the Smart Tables. Unlike the historic performance of the first place holders, this one was more representative of modern day Korea, performing an all-encompassing 20^th century dance genre exhibiting a vast spectrum of musical and visual elements, the K-pop. The ladies dressed in red tops and black skirts defied expectations and won KRW 300,000. 

Taking the awards to Africa, the judges granted the third place prize of KRW 200,000 to the Power Girls” Clad in split skirts resembling the Hawaii Garlands Grass, the ladies from Cameroon, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and Ghana performed a range of dances from around the African continent. Characteristic of all African dances of stomping, energetic movements and Africa’s lifestyle were carefully merged in the third-place dance group.

Winning the global award were Indonesia’s Saman dancers, the Samers.  With gold brocade wrapped around their bodies, the dancers consisting of not only Indonesians, but Russians as well moved their hands, fingers, heads, eyes and bodies with supple grace and in perfect unison with each other. This team was unique as it was the only team that performed without music but created a rhythmic sound by tapping on the floor of the auditorium.

“It is nice to come to KDI School and experience this much diversity in song and dance for free before I go back home in two weeks,” says Binita from Bhutan. What did she like best? “It’s not one thing, all the groups were amazing, am blown away.” “I was so impressed with all the teams. We do a lot of intellectual stuff here, but we need a break, and this was amazing” exclaims Sophea from Cambodia.  It was wonderful to see song and dance, two inseparable parts of the same activity merged in one at the festival for students to enjoy.

The movements of the singers, dancers and the audience - from whatever form or culture – were overflowing with joy, vitality, vibrations, radiation, and emotions. Dancers danced their bodies out, just as much as the singers and guitarists sang and played their hearts outs. At the end of the day, everyone was a winner. And as the Dean had predicted, the audience was not disappointed. Though different, they all moved to the same rhythm of song and dance.

By Chiindi CHIPUTA (2015 MDP, Zambia)