A Fresh Start
Gabrielle M. Hadipraja, Year 7
The Year 8s have just begun their new unit, Renewal.
Their Entry Point symbolised the big idea: “The end of a
process is often the preparation for the beginning of
something new.” As an Entry Point activity, the Year 8s
swayed to an ancient dance called the ‘Khatak Dance’.
Khatak dancers usually apply heavy eyeliner to represent
their new beginnings each time they dance. During this
event, people would use the Anarkali, an Indian dress.
Connor Moore honoured the dance by wearing the
anarkali and heavy eyeliner. The rest of the class did
their best in following the moves that have a long history
behind it, with a renewed promise at the heart of its
purpose.
Year 8 student, Sophie Razmovski, commented, “This
entry point is a really good approach to the big idea. I like
the part that Connor gets to wear a dress too.”
This dance started in India when temples allotted times
for religious dances to take place. However, as time went
by, the dance was banned in religious places. As a
renewed promise to the locals who valued the meaning
behind the dance, the Khatak dance was revived, but in
the form of entertainment. This dance was then
performed to celebrate various events. Anarkalis and
make up were modified and renewed so that they met
the trend.
Ms Vandana and Ms Antie showed the steps to the Year
8s who happily followed the dance. Ms Vandana also
showed how the dance evolved through time. This dance
is also supposed to be telling the story of the
‘Ramayana’. This story relates with the big idea because
the Ramayana ended with a fresh start, in “preparation
for the beginning of something new.”
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