UWCSEA East celebrates Culturama 2021 – an ode to our 50th anniversary
By Lauren Hickson, Head of Dance, East Campus
8 November 2021
On Friday, 29 October, we showcased Culturama 2021 to our UWCSEA community. We were so pleased with how resilient our students were during this process, as at every step of the way it presented different challenges. Our students showed great leadership and perseverance to create a highly engaging and successful performance.
Culturama is an opportunity to share and learn about the diversity of culture within and outside of our community. This year we are celebrating 50 years of UWCSEA and the theme 'There is more in us'. We thought Culturama was a great opportunity to further understand our own UWC communities around the world. Six of the countries represented have United World Colleges in them and two countries, Tajikistan and South Korea, were included as they were reflective of our diverse community here in Singapore.
This year, we had a variety of performances that showcased the incredible talent at UWCSEA. The Marimba Ensemble performed a piece created by two Grade 12 students. This piece, called 'Kamhlaba', meaning 'of the world', was a reference to the UWC Waterford Kamhlaba Campus in Eswatini. Nine singers performed 'Auf uns' by Andreas Bourani, in German. Which is no small feat considering only one performer was a native speaker. We had six storyteller items where students shared their experiences and personal journeys. Our dance items this year explored a variety of themes including regions in India, the traditional Soran Bushi dance from Japan, and the famous Amapiano dance.
Culturama is a learning experience for all involved. For student creators and committees it is learning how to lead and coordinate groups of people and learning how to create something authentic that appropriately appreciates culture. For student performers, it is learning about the culture you are representing and where these traditions and performances come from. For the audience, it is about sampling different elements from cultures all over the world, that could be both familiar and unfamiliar to us.
Culturama takes us on a journey to other places and provides us with new ways to learn about these cultures through performance. It has been an absolute pleasure bringing you Culturama 2021. Congratulations to all students and staff involved. We hope to return next year bigger and better!