Full on commitment, with smiles on faces

 

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 1^st 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.