Archive for June 24th, 2009
Para Para Montessori!!!!
by Wendy on Jun.24, 2009, under Children, Family, Music
“Directress, you have to learn up the Para Para dance so that you can teach the students for the up-coming family day at Titiwangsa this Saturday!” said Ms. Theam (our kindy principal). “You have got 3 days to get it right!” We, directress all stared blankly at her, wondering how in the &)&&#)($&(* are we going to achieve that!!!!
We had discussed and agreed to doing Para Para dance like a month before hand. I had downloaded the videos from Youtube with the help of Ed converting and burning the files so that I can bring it to kindy for viewing and ‘practice’. As usual, dilly dally to the last few days and panic buttons were pushed and all of us Directress are running around like headless chicken.
Probably is talent that we have in us, we managed to get the hang of how Para Para is being danced. I chose the simplest version with a nice catchy tune (in fact, all of us were humming it now and then - LOL, it got stuck in our heads!!!! Dang!) I think we would be ‘eating’ Para, ‘drinking’ Para, ’shitting’ Para and ‘dreaming’ Para these few days till Saturday!
We managed to ’show’ and ‘teach’ the children - it was a funny sight. We trying to keep up to the beat and movements (also trying our hardest to look like we have been doing it for years!!!!) Children being fast learners, some of them actually got on quite well!!! In fact, they could be better than us “old farts” with rusty bones…. ;P
Here is some info on what ‘Para Para’ dance is:
Para Para is performed using mostly arm movements; very little lower body movement is involved save for perhaps moving one’s hips or stepping in place, although a few routines require more detailed leg motions. It has been speculated that it is a descendant of the traditional Bon Odori dance, however there is no known link. The dance originated from the early days in the 80’s when men working in the VIP room in clubs would choreograph dances to impress the women. The dance style then grew from there. The dances are performed to fast, upbeat music such as Eurobeat, Hyper Techno and Eurodance. Fans of Para Para dancing often call themselves “Paralists”.
The dance we are to do:
**KING KONG…KING KONG….**
