On Friday morning, there was a ruckus in the dance room of Singa Primary School. The backdrop that the Star Dance Club members has spent an entire week painting had strangely disappeared. After a frantic hour of searching, the dejected dancers returned to the room. Mr Tay, the instructor, asked who the last person was to leave the dance room the day before.
“It’s probably Dan. Aida and I saw him walking back to the dance room when we left,” said Limei almost accusingly, as if he should know what had happened.
Dan quickly replied, “I forgot my water bottle and went back to get it, but…but I didn’t notice anything amiss.”
Mr Tay reminded the dancers that it was not the time for finger-pointing. He said, “Where’s your Star spirit? We should be working together on the problem. The performance is taking place tonight!”
As usual, Bryan, nicknamed The Brain, spoke up. “We won’t be able to paint another Angsana tree in time. How about projecting its image onto a white screen instead? It will take just a few minutes to find a suitable picture.”
“But won’t the light be shining on our face when we dance?” asked Shanthi.
Bryan pondered for a while before replying, “What if we place the projector behind the screen? This way, the dancers who are in front will not be affected.”
“That might just work,” Mr Tay smiled. “Of course, we may need to dim the lights in the hall so that the projection will appear more clearly.”
That night, the hall was in darkness, drawing the audience to the projection of a majestic Angsana tree onstage. After the show, the performance received many positive comments, so did the stunning projection. The dancers beamed with joy. Some thought that the backdrop incident had turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
At practice the following week, the dancers were still chatting excitedly about their success. It was therefore a great surprise when Mr Tay walked into the dance room looking solemn. He said, “We should celebrate Friday’s wonderful performance, but there’s something I thought you should know.” Mr Tay stepped aside to reveal Dan behind him.
“I’m…so, so sorry,” Dan croaked emotionally. “I spilled water on the canvas cloth when I wanted to drink from my water bottle. But when I was reaching out for the rag nearby, I accidentally toppled a tin of paint and made an even greater mess. I could wipe the spilled water but not the paint. I knew you’d all be furious, so I hid canvas cloth away.”
Everyone looked at Dan, not knowing what to say not how to react. A gentle voice finally broke the tension when Aida spoke, “It’s over and fortunately we managed to turn the situation around with the grand projection on the screen. But having spent such a long time painting the backdrop, I feel attached to it. Where is it?”
Dan led the dancers to the storeroom where the rolled up canvas cloth was tucked behind some dusty old props. The canvas cloth was unfurled on the floor, displaying an ugly blotch of paint near the bottom of the cloth. Gasps of dismay echoed in the room as the dancers looked at the disastrous end to their hard labour.
“Hmm, can anyone see in that blotch the shape of someone jumping?” Bryan wondered aloud. Shanthi grinned. She found a paintbrush and with a few strokes painted over the blotch to draw a boy leaping into mid-air. True the club spirit, the others chipped in and added a few more dancing figures.
To this day, the backdrop showing the Angsana tree with dancing figures still hangs in the dance room, reminding all of the sparkling Star spirit.
PSLE 2019