Just when the immovable weight
of win-at-all costs schoolboy rugby was getting me down, I was given a breath
of fresh air on Wednesday night, and a reminder of the value of organised
activity for school kids; of the willingness of children to work extremely hard
if it’s at something they love doing; and of the skill, dedication and passion that
adults (teachers and others) have for setting up learning experiences for those
children.
And it came in, for me, a strange
place, an area I know very little of – music. Jeppe are hosting a cultural
festival this week – an attempt to give their non-sporting stars a taste of
what the rugby and other sports team get when they are invited to the various
interschool gatherings every year.
Wednesday night was a music
festival and I was roped in to go along and take pictures. There were seven
schools there – choirs, marimbas and bands – and it was just amazing. I was a
reluctant audience member at first but I came away awed.
Clearly you don’t get to be as
good as those singers and players are without hours and hours of practice (probably
more than the sportsmen put in), and it made (to my uneducated ear, anyway) for
some top class performances from everyone.
What really struck me, though,
was that everyone – on stage and off – seemed to be having the time of their
lives. They performed with joy when they were up there, and they were on their
feet and invested when they were in the audience. And there was whole-hearted
appreciation and acclaim from everyone for everyone else.
I sat surrounded by them and
experienced the amazing way in which they sang their own words, in perfect
harmony, along with what was being played onstage. It was the magic of
musicians jamming along that I’ve read about but never really seen.
And during interval there was an
impromptu massed choir involving just about everyone, outside the hall singing,
beautifully, a song that they somehow all knew the words of.
I know there are interschool competitions
in some of these activities, Wednesday wasn’t one, yet I saw commitment and
passion equal to what you see at 1st team rugby matches, and it all
happened with wide, white-toothed smiles on faces, everywhere.
It’s unfair to single any one act
out, but if I ever get the chance to watch the Parktown Boys’ High School brass
band again, or the Greenside High School choir, I’m grabbing it.
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