_With the newly appointed U.S. Ambassador Villarosa presiding the panel of jury members, the competition kick-started with a shy collective speech by Mauritius College (Girls) but reached a surprising peak with Imperial College's daring performance! Indeed, the imperial students chose to present a sketch and, wait for it, include a female character! Try picturing that with a all-boys crew - the only way to make that happen was to use a wig and a dress, and they did. Portraying a woman running for the presidential elections in a near future with an old, patriarchal antagonist figure, the Imperial College rightly used some twisted humor to their advantage and stood out of the lot from the beginning of the competition (they passed in second position). Although it reminded me of The Lady - deeply-touching movie by Luc Besson which illustrated the rise to political world of Aung San Suu Kyi- it sort of bothered me that their acting out the female gender was a little too mannered to my taste. They portrayed the stereotypical women with very girly mannerism (ceaselessly getting her fingers in her hair, whisking her hairdo from left to right as she talked) but probably meant to go for the laughable side of it! And it worked! They made their way to the Top 3 by ranking third! Congrats Imperial College! Teams followed leisurely and quite innocently until the boys from St Joseph's College, with an overly-sized group of supporters, made their way to stage. A short thin figure appeared wearing the flag of Mauritius wrapped around his body a la Gandhi. Eyes shot up and stuck to the stage - we all knew something was coming! And yes, what a SHOW! With a well-thought staging and uniquely written dialogues, mixing twisted humor and allegories to Mauritius, to our national anthem, to Gandhi (an important figure with regards to how much he inspired Martin Luther King Jr.) and to our current sociopolitical setting, the boys from SJC demonstrated surprising oratory talents. Even more catchy was the slam conclusion. Building up tension from opponents in some sort of 'war of words' to the ultimate conversion of the antagonists to the protagonists' concept of civil rights and righteousness in general, the slam finale blew the crowd off their seats. No wonder they made it to first place! Congratulations boys! _Walking up the stage after the SJC crew was a tough job and no one seemed to have been able to top the SJC performance until the final team: Hindu Girls' College. Always very meticulous and fusspot, the girls from HGC proved once more to have been outstanding in their way of dealing with the competition. Wearing flimsy white cloth over their uniforms, they produced a very poetic sketch. The crowd seemed to have gone silent as the girls gently floated on stage in some sort of advanced spiritual sphere. Using the white as symbol of unity (contrasting with using colors to show belonging to specific groups) and a carefully, over-rehearsed performance, the girls simply and purely unveiled their dream for Mauritius in a unique fashion. You might think they would rank second, but the judges wanted to shake things up and decided that both SJC and HGC would share the first place! With this surprising return to limelight, St Joseph's College proves that they do not settle for results but that they strive for creating men of tomorrow; prepared for opening up in front of people; prepared to face life armed differently. Indeed, with an average yet increasing SC performance (SJC went up from 77.27% to 87.10% this year), the khaki shorts demonstrate that they still have untapped potential, probably to be unleashed by the new administration.
On the other side of Curepipe, the girls from HGC, although not having been able to reinstate their 100& pass rate feat at SC (the school had a 98.54% pass rate for the SC 2012 batch with only 3 students failing) keep reminding us that they are fighting to stay on top in Curepipe! Way to go girls! Have you attended the competition this morning? What have you thought about it? And what about the results- are they to your taste? Let us know by leaving comments! Sine Cera
2 Comments
Mrs Mylene Maurel
2/28/2013 12:55:12 am
Can we have some photos of the events or even video shots. Good initiative from the U.S. Ambassy of Mauritius and appreciate very much Mrs. Sine Cera's "Compte Rendu";("Theydo not settle for results but that they strive for creating mem of tomorrow...") of the competition. By the way my son took part in that competition and had his feed back, who was very positive.
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Hi there, unfortunately I do not possess any footage from the competition. But given that son participated in that competition, I am positive that he should know someone who had pictures uploaded on Facebook. Glad you liked the post and "Sine Cera" is only my signature line. Stay tuned!
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