Concert Day

Update: See the bottom of the post for Abang's Mummy's kindergarten concert picture!


I remember when Abang’s teacher told me about their school concert. Initially, I thought that only the older children, the 5- and 6-year olds, would be involved.

“Oh no, all the children will be involved,” she corrected me, “the 3- and 4-year olds will be doing a Chinese dance.”

“Really?” I didn’t hide my surprise. “Can they actually remember the dance steps?” I was more amused than anything. I mean, how many dancing steps can a 3-year old remember, anyway?

“Can, can. They are very simple steps.”

So this morning was Abang’s “Concert Day”, as he kept referring to it. Parents were instructed to send their children to the school (a local primary school) at 8:30am and come back later to attend the concert at 10am.

We were a little late, arriving at 10:10am and the principal was already finishing her speech. They were way early! Daddy concluded that the children were probably all getting very restless, having been there since 8:30am and so the teachers decided to start bang on time.

Luckily, we got there before the concert proper started.

What a treat for us parents! The Welcome Dance was performed to Ricky Martin’s “The Cup of Life” – you know that song, “go go go, ale ale ale…” with the kind of gusto only 6-year old boys could conjure on a Sunday morning. It was followed by what was called “Hawaiian Dance” performed by the girls in costumes that we were afraid might have JAKIM or JAWI (or, heaven help us, RELA) banging on our school doors!

Next up, the moment we were waiting for: Abang’s Chinese Dance. The girls came out first, all dressed up, then came the boys in their bright red shirts and beige pants. Aaahh … so that's what he was doing all week. A little march, followed by waving of hands up in the air and then turning around and walking in single file off the stage. He also “taught” me some of the girls’ steps.

Was it just me, or was he the best Chinese dancer around?

The rest of the show was absolutely cute. I like the one called “Mexican Dance”, which actually featured the boys in cool sunglasses and toy guitars rocking away to “La Bamba”. Later they also had a play involving ‘animals’, ‘plants’ and a narrator all of whom were from the 6-year olds’ class. An “Indian Classical Dance” was performed by the girls and then the boys did a clown show – very appropriate indeed for 5-year old boys.

After the "Joget", the real clown showed up to entertain the children while the teachers helped the 6-year olds get ready for their graduation. That’s when we started seeing some of Abang’s classmates start to cry and be taken by their parents. Perhaps sitting right at the feet of The Scary Clown while he’s doing a magic trick involving eating pieces of paper and later pulling it back out (only this time it’s a single piece about 3 metres long) was just too much for them.

Just then, I was telling Daddy how brave Abang was: Not only was he – by far – the best performing dancer (in my biased, motherly opinion) but he also didn’t cry neither did he have stage fright from the INCREDIBLY LOUD music that was blaring during the concert. He’s even ok with the clown, even though some of his classmates are not! Hah!

Oh-oh.

Right at that moment we saw his class teacher walking towards us, holding the hands of a little boy crying away, insisting on going home because “scared” of The Clown.

Before we left, we managed to congratulate the principal on a great concert and she handed us a goody bag – stationery set for the children (obviously!), a packet of mee hoon (very nice), a packet of nasi lemak (Abang polished half of it) and mineral water. This was in addition to the snack pack of doughnut and curry puffs they handed out when we arrived.

We said thank you, and we went home. Proud parents, unite!

Mummy doing her Chinese dance 30 years ago!