Down's With Normal

I went to see a little charity dance/concert thing tonight, which was done by boys from Anglo-Chinese School and some kids from the Down's Syndrome Association. I have a friend whose 12 year-old brother has Down's, and both this kid and his little brother were both in the show. It was held in an auditorium at ACS, which was ridiculous, but more on that later.

The show was titled Electric Youth, which is a pretty ridiculous title, but everyone seemed to like it, so who am I to complain?

It's already tough to teach dance steps - and steps for multiple dances, at that - to kids with Down's. Add a group of rambunctious high school aged boys to the mix, and you get absolute insanity on the part of the choreographer. Thankfully, they managed to pull through.

The usual bad musical choices, including Mariah Carey, S Club 7, and other such teenybopper tunes. They even had some unidentifiable hip-hop and threw in Coldplay too for good measure.

I won't go to much into details, but suffice to say it was intended to tug heavily at the heartstrings; you were supposed to feel greatly motivated by the efforts of these kids. And I guess in a way, it worked. Except I was constantly distracted by some of the "normal" kids who were worse dancers than the rest. I mean, I can forgive the Down's kids for missing their cues and stuff, but I guess I have to be harsher on the high school kids. Oh well.

There were some pretty nice moments, and little things that just made you go "Awww". Like when my friend's youngest brother (without Down's) went and did a little solo thing, it was adorable. And when a little girl with Down's was supposed to do a cartwheel across the stage, she fell down flat on her face. Some audience members laughed (may they burn in hell), and she ran off and cried in the wings. She was still visible from where I was sitting, and it was really an "Awww" moment. And of course there were the embarassing moments when the high school kids, attempting to hold a position with their feet in the air, lost either their strength or their balance and they slowly lowered their legs to a pretty pathetic-looking position on the floor.

What surprised me a little was how some of the Down's kids were actually pretty decent dancers, who could move in time to the beat and everything. I guess rhythm is an intuitive thing, you either have it or you don't, and this applies equally to "normal" and Down's kids alike.

There was one ACS boy, though, who really grabbed my attention. No, he demanded it. Unlike many of the other kids, this boy's actions were sharp and clearly defined. Clarity of action is half of dancing, I believe, and this kid had both that and rhythm in spades. The kids went into the audience after the show, and I congratulated this boy on an excellent performance. He kinda looked pleased and embarassed at the same time. Offstage, he didn't look like much, just a typical scrawny fifteen year-old kid with not particularly eyecatching features. But onstage, his presence was undeniable. His every move was calculated to the point of perfection, and he seemed to know that all eyes were on him, and every flourish was meant to draw your attention into his world even more. He was just into it. You know, when an actor or dancer just abandons the Self and immerses himself completely into whatever he's doing. These are the people whom you can tell will go far. Even if not in dance, his perfectionism and professionalism will do wonders in any field.

Oh yes, and I was going to talk about the ACS campus at Barker Road. Suffice to say that it's amazing what alumni with very, very deep pockets can do. An underground parking structure. A swimming pool built on top of that structure. A chapel on top of it all. Elevators taking you from the carpark to level ground. A canteen that looked like a cafe along Orchard Road. All the trappings of the bourgeoisie in a high school campus. Ugh. It just made me so... annoyed. The whole place felt so privileged, it really bothered me. No wonder all the kids, even the ushers were well-groomed and well-spoken. I guess I'm just jealous my high school was nothing like that.