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WISS Brimming Over with the 2009 Chinese New Year Celebration
By WISS Admin | February 4, 2009
Students in Nursery to Grade 9 from the Western International School of Shanghai (WISS) collectively staged a dazzling show of traditional Chinese rhymes, dances, instrumental music, drama, and martial arts on Saturday, January 17 to celebrate the Year of the Ox with their parents, siblings and friends.
As a signature event at WISS, this year’s Chinese New Year show turned out to be another marvel with back to back shows from first the Kindergarten students and then the G1-9 students.
The show was unveiled by Pre-Kindergarten students who danced to the song “Dancing for the New Year” in their extraordinary Chinese costumes. This was followed by the hilarious Lion Dance by Nursery students. Then students from the other Nursery class, dressed as 12 adorable zodiac animals performed a song entitled “Happy Chinese Zodiac”. Then, little cowboys and cowgirls from Kindergarten class kept the ball rolling by presenting the rousing “Matador Dance”, followed by a traditional Chinese costume exhibition by the little runway models from the other Pre-Kindergarten class. Students from yet another Kindergarten class wowed the audience by the elegant and beautiful Chinese Fan Dance. The first part of the show was capped off by all Kindergarten children performing their favorite Chinese songs and rhymes, some of which had even been created by themselves.
The 2nd part of the show commenced while the audience was still savouring the feast of the previous show. The middle schoolers apparently had something up their musical sleeve by performing the graceful “Jasmine Flower” Quartet. The G9 Er Hu player Vincent Lo, G8 pianist Yuri Oe, Flutists Miholyn Soon and Pierre de Verduzan as well as G9 guitarist Sohail Kalia put together an astonishing piece of Chinese classics together with G6 dancers Sabina West and Ayano Yoshida.
There followed a drama of a newly-arrived family coming to WISS one day in their search for a school for their son. Played by Cedric Bellens of G1, Benjamin Hermans of G4 and Prue Dellar of G5, the fictional family spoke exclusively in flawless Chinese, impressing the audience. The drama incorporated a series of wonderful songs, dances, and dramatic scenes, involving students in Grades1 to 9.
The dance “Good Days” came first with boys playing the Shaanxi Drum and girls performing the Red Fan Dance to show the joy of Shaanixi people celebrating the festive mood. Then the first and second graders, adorned with distinctive facial makeup and lavish costumes, startled the audience with a song entitled “ Facial Makeup for Beijing Opera”. And the students of upper primary grades progressed to sing a song from the bottom of their heart “Welcome to WISS” which was adapted from the universally known song at the 2008 Olympic Games, “ Welcome You to
Finally, the WISS staff concluded the whole show with the official theme song for the 2008 Beijing Olympics “You and Me”, indicating that at WISS wherever you come from, we are family.
At WISS. nothing says Xin Nian Kuai Le as much as the superb arts performances completely in Chinese engaging all its students. Along with a strong multi-leveled Chinese program, WISS enjoys a reputation for carefully fostering bi- and tri-lingualism.
Director Dr.
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