The world of childhood is magical and the world of creativity is amazing. And when these two concepts are put together in the hall, filled with the pandemonium of colours and children's laughter, they remind us of fireworks.

  To this particular kind of festival, which took place at Almaty Schoolchildren’s Palace, we were invited by the organizers of the competition "Rauan". Our groups participated in two nominations. The collective "Jonati" presented dance of Bukhara Jews and ethnic production "Osker"; and a vocal duet, Natasha Tresvyatskaya and Nastya Pechenkina, sang everyone’s favourite song "Shain".

  The contest took place in the morning until lunch and a gala concert was arranged for the second half of the day. We happily went to dine at the green meadow near the Schoolchildren’s Palace as we were confident that our collectives were the chosen participants of the gala concert. Our mood was elevated, we laughed and played. After all, we had a reason to be proud of ourselves as we had good dance choreography, precise performance and new bright costumes. But a nasty surprise was waiting for us as we discovered that the list of the participants of gala concert did not have names of our groups. Children burst into tears, and the adjudicators were not happy about it, either.

  The competition was attended by more than 500 contestants and all the participants were quite creditable. We thought that our holiday is over, but decided to stay to watch the concert and to support the artistic teams which we met on that day.

  After the gala concert the award ceremony started with singers and our girls approached the stage in hope to receive the participant’s diploma only. But to their and our surprise, they were granted the Third place! The mood of the group rose and it was gratifying that the talent of our duet was recognized by the high jury.

  But our excitement did not recede as the awards for the choreographic collectives commenced. Firstly, the participants getting diplomas were called onto the stage and "Jonati" was not among them. Then the Third place recipient was called, and again not a word about us. Children became agitated; they thought that they have been forgotten. And suddenly there was an announcement: "The Second place in the competition is awarded to choreographic collective "Jonati"".

  We did not believe our ears and started to ask other people if we heard it right. Yes, it was true! All twelve dancers, pushing each other, ran onto the stage to receive the certificate and the trophy. It is simply not possible to describe children's emotions. Both the participants and their parents were pleased that the group won. We received the Second place, but most importantly, once again we felt the support of each other in our ability to represent our Jewish culture. We felt like laughing and shouting. And the children did just that - laughed and shouted.

Inessa Chugainova