Garba night celebrated at the Academy

Inaya Somani, year 10, organized a garba night celebration at the Academy on 26 October. The night was open to all students, day and residential, and was filled with dancing from all students, including staff. With the help of the Student Representative Council, Inaya was able to plan this event, which also supports her personal project. Here, Inaya reflects on her event and its planning process.

‘’I planned a garba night at the Academy, which involves a night full of garba - a traditional Gujarati dance - and other cultural dances followed by Bollywood-style dances. This event was organized by me as part of my personal project, which involves teaching a group of five girls four kinds of cultural dances, such as garba, kaka bapa, four-step and hinch. I decided to expand my event out to the senior school students so others can also learn these dances and have fun with it.

This event was organized by me as part of my personal project, which involves teaching a group of five girls four kinds of cultural dances, which were garba, kaka bapa, four-step and hinch. I decided to expand my event out to senior school students so others can also learn these dances and have a lot of fun.

Inaya SomaniOrganizing garba night required a lot of commitment and hard work and I faced a lot of challenges with things such as the venue, DJ and lighting. The venue I chose was booked earlier for another event, which is why I had to choose another location, and some last minute complications came up with the student who was going to be the original DJ. I originally wanted disco lights for the event but there was some miscommunication leading to poor lighting. I was really stressed out over the event because I wanted everything to be perfect, but in the end the venue was spacious and I found another student DJ who played Bollywood music

Although there were challenges, the event in general turned out to be a great success. I expected about 200-250 people to come, but instead there were around 300 people or more, and everyone loved the event. So many people came to the event, followed the dress code and also took the initiative to learn the dances and have fun. I was very happy with everything related to the event in general because it surpassed my expectations. The head of the academy, Mrs. Alison, her husband, Mr. Ric, the junior school principal, Mrs. Annia and the senior school principal, Mr. Kariuki, also came to the event, learned a couple of the dances and had fun.

Overall, I was very happy in organizing garba night this year. I personally felt really proud of myself because I came out of my comfort zone and did something I haven’t done before. I also want to thank some of my friends who helped me in the process of planning this night and the school for allowing me to have this event. I look forward to organizing events like this in the future.’’