N

ot even heavy rain was enough to make hundreds of high school students in South Jakarta flee their school yard on Saturday morning.

Wearing colorful handmade vests made from plastic waste packaging, they shook their bodies to the energetic beats of the Papuan folk song "Yamko Rambe Yamko".

Their brisk moves then slowed down as the sound of Michael Jackson's "Heal the World" floated in the air. When the dance was about to end, the students waved their hands, singing the song's famous chorus, and asked the hundreds of audience members packed in a huge tent in front of the school's entrance to do the same.

A storm of applause erupted as soon as the students completed their performance.

"It was fantastic," 15-year-old Theresia Georgia, one of the dancers, told The Jakarta Post.

"We only had a few days to practice, but I'm very happy because we performed the dance successfully."

The epic dance, performed by tenth graders at SMA Kolese Gonzaga, was one of several shows presented during an open house event at the high school, which officially kicked off on Saturday.

The two-day event themed, "Living Green, Shaping the Future", not only aimed at introducing the school's curriculum and facilities to the public, but also at inspiring students and visitors to put more effort into preserving the environment.

In addition to the education fair, the two-day event also included a waste recycling workshop, two environmental seminars, and several art performances and science exhibitions.

"If we can safeguard our environment, it means we are saving our lives and others, for now and the future" said Gonzaga director A. Hendro Subekti.

The dance performance for example, was the school's way of promoting green life to the public, said Gabriela Kristalinawati, the school's biology and environmental technology teacher.

"We asked the students to make their own vests so that they would understand how it feels to produce and wear a recycled product."

In recent years, she added, Gonzaga, which was established in 1987, had also integrated its green vision into the school's syllabus.

"For example, students in grade 10 will learn extensively about recycling and global warming not only from class, but also from experiments such as compost making and field observation," she said.

Fiko, 16, an eleventh-grader said he was happy to increase his knowledge of the environment through his classes. "Now, at least, I know how to make a biopore and turn organic waste into compost fertilizer," he said.

Tenth-grader Nouval Arrizky, 15, also said he was very enthusiastic about participating in the dance.

"However, since I am not used to sewing, I only collected plastic packages and asked my servant to help me make the vest," he said, smiling.