A wonderful Arts Fest!

Written by: Jacob Thien Yee Young & Lim Jia Ying (3E2)

It was Monday, the first day of the Arts Festival. There was an audible silence in the hall as the students were still groggy from adjusting to the early weekday morning. However, as soon as the Malay dancers came on-stage with their lively performances, swaying to the rhythmic beat of the music and dressed in vibrant hues of green and gold, it woke the school up from the Monday blues immediately. It also kept me intently focused on the performance exhibited for us.  The dance ended with thunderous applause coming from the audience, signaling a great start to the TPSS Arts Festival.

On day two, Modern Chinese Dance took the stage with a marvelous fan dance where they were explicitly able to showcase their elegant and graceful moves, accompanied by a simple, and soothing traditional Chinese tune. It was indeed pleasing to the eyes to watch this expressive art form being performed!

The beautiful fan dance by Modern Chinese Dance

Then, using deep, middle, and high tones, and various pitches, Show Choir members blended their voices together to create a harmonious melody. Listening intently, I realised that each voice actually stood apart from the rest and was unique on its own, which showed just how amazing it was to gather individuals with different strengths to create a great performance.

A truly great performance by Show Choir

The Concert Band played many famous Disney classics, with the most memorable song being ‘Aladdin: A Whole New World’. I would have to say that this was my favourite part of the Arts Festival as they did a phenomenal job and it felt like I was watching a professional concert band in real life! It was truly awe-inspiring and I’m sure many felt that way too, seeing how everyone keenly listened to the songs played.

Disney classics by the Concert Band

Dance Dynamics was next, and they danced to an energetic English pop song, which also made the audience feel more excited and energised in the early morning. They must have practiced their street-style choreography a lot in order to confidently showcase such a superb performance, and I cannot deny that it really revved me up for the day!

Dance Dynamics was absolutely riveting!

Last but not least, the Drama Club gave us an extremely important and insightful show about racism and prejudice. Watching their performance was a poetic masterpiece as they were able to define the feelings of being ‘trapped in a cage’ as a prejudiced individual and how there were multiple difficulties they had to face, which was shown by the inconsistent movement of the ‘boat’ they were trapped in.  Unfortunately, this play was cut short due to the lack of time to play it in full, however, the scenes shown in the video were enough to leave a lasting impact.

All in all, the Arts Festival was truly memorable and made me appreciate the variety of contemporary or traditional art forms through dance, music, and drama. Although it was only held over a few days, I truly enjoyed every moment of it!