The Chorus Contest

AKA: "Oh my goodness, child, there is no reason to be this excited."

For weeks, my students had been singing during recess, during cleaning time, and in the hallways. At last, on the 30th of October, the long-awaited Chorus Contest began.

Note the word "contest." In Japanese schools, all students take art and chorus. As I have mentioned before, students spend the entire day with the same group of people, their "gumi [goo-me]" or "class." This allows for things like competitions within the same grade, which is hard to do in American schools. Thus, what I originally took to be a chorus concert was, in fact, a competition between gumis.

This was a big affair. I should have realized what I was in for when the whole day was cleared for the contest. The students all met at the middle school and then rode their bikes to Airys Hall, home to a theater hall, a gym, and other useful venues. The teachers had to be stationed at different points along the way to ensure that the 300 some odd kids who were riding along the same road at approximately the same time were not blocking too much traffic. (Seeing these kids head out was one of the highlights of my day.)

Once everyone arrived and were arranged, the contest began. First, the whole grade would sing one song together, giving the judges (aka: the teachers) an idea of what the song sounded like. Then, they would split into their classes and sing two songs - one that every class sang and one piece the class picked. Repeat with the next grade.

Now, the most interesting part of all of this was that the piano accompaniment and the conducting were ALSO done by students. The piano accompaniment was sometimes done by two people, each contributing one hand to the arrangement, as neither could play both parts. The conducting, however, was by far the most interesting student contribution, as most of my kids seemed to like the full-body conducting style. I don't often see conductors bend down to the ground to signal their crescendos, but these kids were in full swing. It was ... hilarious and amazing.

The singing, too, was amazingly good. I am of the opinion that being tone-deaf is a nurture thing rather than a nature one, but that doesn't make everyone a good singer by any means. Despite this, these kids did a wonderful job. One song sung by the third years had multiple teachers in tears; I'm sure I would've been in their number had I been able to understand the words.

Soon, the classes were done singing, and the extra music groups came out to perform. There was a sweet rendition of a song by a group of second year girls, and an amusingly flamboyant version of "We Are the Children" by the third years and a particularly out-there teacher. The brass band, an after-school club, joined in with a medley of songs by Pink Lady, a very popular duet from the 1970s. And that's when things got interesting.

Flashback: Monday, the day before the contest.
One of my teachers told me that a student from the brass band wanted to ask a favor of me. "Do you know the group 'Pink Lady'?"
Do I ever! I went to a Japanese language camp for two weeks the summer after 8th grade, and there learned a dance to a song called "UFO," sung by Pink Lady. It was the best part of camp, and everybody did it...and loved it. After that, I got a tape of Pink Lady songs, and I had that sucker fairly well memorized.
So, back to Monday. I found out that the favor was ... dun dun DUN! ... doing a dance to a Pink Lady song.
End flashback.

The brass band played the medley once through, to everyone's enjoyment. Then, immediately thereafter, the music teacher announced that "there was still more" and invited the "Ikushina Middle School Dance Team" out to the stage. I ran out with all the other teachers asked to dance, and we made fair fools of ourselves, to the student's general enjoyment.

Awards were presented to the best classes of each grade, and the day was suddenly over. Amusingly, I had parents and teachers complimenting my ability to dance for the rest of the time I was at Airys. A flurry of pictures were taken, and everyone went home.

All in all, it was a wonderfully fun day. And hey, any day I get to publicly embarrass myself must be a good day! :D

Oh, and as a little treat: a picture of two classes (aka: half of one grade) as they were about to head out. This is one of my favorite pictures...uh...ever.