Having a Ball at The Gardens School Part 1

Here's the first account of our Year 7 and 8 ball last Wednesday, and some of the photos.



On the evening of the 5th of October, the Intermediate team of the Gardens School gathered around the school hall. All wore their best dresses and suits and, as was required, their best attitudes. Many tried to make a grand entrance but they were shortly outshone by what they discovered on arrival.

The classic blacked-out windows greeted ball-goers and hid from passers-by the fabulous decor inside, which included a definitely-not-to scale Eiffel Tower, many Christmas lights and a supper that could be considered a feast fit for a king. In the background, French music complimented the theme of the night nicely - "A Night In Paris".

We began the night's dancing with the Grand March which is often performed at posh, formal balls. It starts with boys and girls in lines, shortest to tallest, and when the music starts the front two join arms and walk towards the host/hostess and everyone else follows along until everyone ends up in lines of 8s. We walked to the French national anthem which matched our theme.

We then broke into columns to dance Mueva la Colita, which in Spanish means "shake your bottom" or as Mrs Vincent says, "Move your tail." This was followed by the famous Macarena which although it is danced frequently many get it wrong, as one student kindly and thoughtfully demonstrated the correct way to do it. (Thank you, from Mrs Vincent.)


We then pulled out some dance moves that belong in the late 1970s and danced to Saturday Night Fever which then broke into the Circle Waltz, then through the Maxina, the Palais Glide, the Gay Gordons, the Merengue, the Veleta, and a statue waltz.

After most of the organised dancing, we had supper, followed by a snowball waltz, led by the best dancers of the night so far. Next the house lights were turned off and the disco and laser lights shone and we all started free-styling to some more recent tunes.
Thank you Mrs Whitehead for the group photos.

by Ricky-Jean


Here's a slide show of the ball photos. The link is currently 'private' which means it can only be accessed by using a link to it. You won't find it by searching or by finding it randomly.


If you have any photos you would like added, can you email them to me kayv@thegardens.school.nz and I will upload them to the blog. Others will have to wait until we are back at school. I hope you are all having a good holiday - from Mrs Vincent.