Monday night was the camp talent show. We volunteers decided we wanted to do a little something for it. Nothing special just basically go in front of the kids and make fools of ourselves. We decided we would lip sync to a song and dance around like idiots. After many song options we decided on “Umbrella” and had a little piece we quickly choreographed.
Later in the day the Moroccan staff told us that they wanted to do something with us. A couple hours before the show we had a meeting together and we told them our ideas and were ready to listen to theirs. We showed them our little “Umbrella” dance and they decided it would be too hard for them to learn so they vetoed that idea.
Turns out they already had what they thought was an incredible idea. The two people who put this together were both interested in dance and theater, I found out later, so they quickly took creative control. It turned out to be some kind of interpretive dance involving signs saying “welcome to spring camp” and us volunteers blooming like flowers. After 30 minutes of confusion and many takes, we had it down.
Chris, Rachel, Casey, Falisha, Sam, and I were basically pawns to be placed where ever Elyass (our choreographer) wanted. We got many snaps and points and commands shouted in Arabic. The whole time we were going between holding in laughter and holding in rage. We knew we would turn back and laugh later.
When it came time to perform it for the kids the music did not work, so for the entire duration of the piece all we heard was buzzing speakers. I liked to think it was the buzzing of the bees flying around the human flowers.