521 Telstra's Dance Workshop with Little Lights 3 of 5

Written by Core Team Leader, Ren dela Cruz
We at U! Happy Events especially look forward to our weekends because these are mostly the days we have a lot of events sponsored by our volunteers. We’re also noticing an increase in number of events these days, which is good news for us because this means more individuals and organizations are realizing the need to serve and spend time with underprivileged children! One such organization is Telstra, who asked us to organize a set of Progressive Dance and Art workshops for them. So last June 13, Saturday, among the number of events we had was the continuation of our Dance Workshop series with community partner, Little Lights.
We trooped to Rohivas covered court in Countryside, Pasig with our Telstra volunteers to meet with the kids of Little Lights for their third dance session with us. To begin the afternoon, we started with the customary ‘Getting to Know’, but with a twist–we asked the volunteers to stay in front and provide their name, favorite song, favorite dance move, plus a demonstration of it! This was a fun activity especially for the children, who giggled and laughed as the volunteers made different moves that ranged from experienced to awkward. In the end Kuya Sam won the game for both his confidence and his funny routine. After introducing themselves, we then assigned the volunteers to each of the five teams we divided among the children, which would be their group for the entire afternoon. We proceeded to our next activity which was the game called ‘Paint Me a Picture’. Because we just celebrated Independence Day the day before the event, the theme of our game was various actions/scenes pertaining to our country. Kuya Harvard asked the groups to portray a Flag Ceremony, fighting for freedom, and other nationalistic scenes. In the end the game was won by group 3, which Pastor Joseph, Little Lights Founder, chose as the best team.
After the game we then proceeded to our Dance Workshop, which I was able to lead again that afternoon. We started it off with a warm-up exercise to hype up everyone and get our heart rates up, as well as make us more flexible for the dance routines. Once warmed up we reviewed the steps I taught the day before, to the tune of Classic. I was happily surprised to see the children dancing the steps well, and learned that they reviewed it by themselves before the event! After a quick run through of the routine for our new volunteers, I then taught steps for the next cut of the dance piece, which is choreographed to the song ‘Price Tag’. I explained to everyone that by the end of the series we will dance all the songs as one dance piece, so they should recall all the steps–which they happily agreed to. Once done teaching, we danced the entire routine as a whole group, and then we asked each of the five groups to perform. It was so exciting to see the kids improving not only in their dancing, but also in their confidence! We then cooled down after that energetic session to prepare us for the next activity–merienda time.
The volunteers got to bond with the children some more as we distributed pansit, drinks, brownies and cookies for them to eat. After finishing the yummy food, we asked everyone to do a group photo to capture the afternoon. To cap off the event, Telstra volunteers gave away school supplies to the kids which they happily accepted, hugging their ates and kuyas to thank them.
It was a great afternoon filled with love and dancing! We’re looking forward to the rest of our Progressive Dance Workshops with Little Lights over the next weekend!

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