CHESS '07 - Evening Two - dancing

CHESS '07 - Evening Two - dancing - 4.jpg
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

Here are some more pics from CHESS - we had a Disco for the kids on the 2nd night. First, our man Ewan taught everyone to Scottish Dance, and then DJ Cleve had the whole crowd moving from 7:30 to 9pm.

Click on this pic to see more from that evening.

This dance, which we have every year at CHESS, is easily one of the highlights of the camp. Japanese kids in High School don't have school dances, so this is often the first time many of them have been to a social, free form dance.

On the third day I asked a girl if she enjoyed the dance the night before and she got a little emotional and then said "Yes - it was the first time I've ever been to a dance." One ALT friend told me that one girl told her it was the first time she'd ever danced - period.

And we have fun, playing a bunch of goofy hits from the 50s to the 80s, like "The Twist" and "Stayin' Alive" and of course "The Macarena" and since most JETs are in their early to mid 20s, they can get out on the dance floor and shake it with the best of them. And the kids just follow our lead since many have never danced with other young people before - so if you come over to a circle of kids and start doing some moves, they all just join in and start to copy you - it's pretty hilarious. But great fun!

I was able to assemble about 200 pics from the first two days of camp and show them on the big screen in the background while the music played - running the slideshow off my trusty little iPod.

OK - one more day of pics to go and then CHESS 2007 will be but a memory. :)

-jason