Performing in front of hundreds

Can you perform?

What day will the performance be? .... SCHOOL: We're not sure. ... There will be a practice tomorrow.

We have class and meetings. We're so sorry we can't come to the rehearsals. ... SCHOOL: Okay, you will just perform in front of the head of the department. He wants to make sure the performance isn't bad.

So, we performed for him. He tried to convince us we wanted background music so we could focus on dancing. After assuring him we would practice, he agreed to have our group of foreign teachers perform during a welcoming event for the freshmen. Little did we realize we should have actually practiced more than just once or twice. We didn't realize the caliber of performances that would be on display. On the day of the performance we were greeted by students dressed in suits who guided us to seats of honor (2nd row, right behind the heads of the department). All of our students were in the rows behind us. They were giddy in anticipation for the afternoon of performances to start (it lasted more than 2 hours .... we had the expectation the time commitment was about 20 minutes). So we settled into our seats, nervously drank some water from the bottles they handed us. My students shoved glow sticks into our hands and the performance began!

They were complete with over-dramatized renditions of Green Day's "Wake Me Up When September Ends", bubble machines, fog machines, flashing lights, synchronized dancing and short skits (think talk show).
 
I'll spare you all the videos and give you the one I thought was funniest. These girls are in my class, they performed an American Idol type skit with their roommates. This clip is from about half way into the entire skit. I hope you can get a good laugh!

And yes, we also did our performance. With some last minute changes (the addition of beat boxing and dancing for our stage entrance) the students really seemed to enjoy the performance. The teachers and students are a blast to work with. Check out Erin's blog for a video of our performance: http://tohaveasong.blogspot.com. It's also at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE9nOTq-jtg&feature=colike