The Wykehamist
2024- 2025
Early 2024, conflict arose, with Kansola rewriting Pop Soc from an underground dance community akin to those in Harlem in the 1970s into a more general Dance Society. Whilst this has allowed our society to grow in the long run, it felt in the moment as if she was taking a community that I had fostered and was using it as foundation for her own ideas, fundamentally erasing the core idea of the original society. Take, for instance, the shift of dance style from waacking and voguing into the mainstream.
At the same time, the opening of the new Sports Centre finally gave dance the space it needed— we achieved a record consistent membership of sixteen. It seemed obvious that it was only fair to allow for a more institutional development of dance, supporting a larger community at the cost of leaving the idea of thriving under struggle behind. That same September, we found a new don to be in charge of Dance Soc, LGS( Co: Ro:, 23-25), who to this day is synonymous with my idea of what dance at Winchester truly is.
In December, we performed a rendition of‘ The Final Countdown’ at the Staff Revue, which may not have been the performance we rehearsed, but it was certainly a spectacle. It was a step forward for the dance community in Winchester: into the spotlight. What was inspiring was the number of unlikely faces who performed with us that night— I remember encouraging Harry Shen( Coll:, 22-) and Felix Hall( K, 20-25) backstage, and being in awe at the stage presence of Eva Crouch( G, 24-) and Ella Tighe( K, 24-).
The rest of the year was used for general choreography and technique, and that was when I felt that dance was truly thriving in the school. For example, we seemed to have genuinely infected LGS; from the beginning of January, she too would take part in all our sessions, making the space overall more welcoming and inclusive.
2025 – 2026
However, in September 2025, dance suffered a few setbacks:
1. We had lost LGS, a don who was fully committed to bringing out the dance community in Winchester. 2. We had also lost a lot of our membership; our society had previously consisted of many top years, or people who now simply no longer had the time to commit so fervently to a society. 3. The introduction of a ballet curriculum caused contention between different styles of dance, and took away time the studio was previously free to use.
It was very difficult finding dons willing to take on all three dance sessions. I felt as if, all at once, everything we had built in previous years had been robbed from us. But it was in the middle of October, looking through pictures of first-year me, that I remembered the mantra of the society had always been, and still is, to never give in without struggle. I especially felt this when I was in Hong Kong due to a family emergency in November, and Cassian and Wilhelmina Lyon( D, 25-) got together to send me a choreography video in hopes of making me feel better. I will always truly appreciate that.
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