NO FLASH IN THE PAN

NO FLASH IN THE PAN

Viral school routine was a labour of love

BY NOW almal has seen the viral video of Curro High School in Durbanville doing their impressive war cry at the Curro Interschools Athletics last Friday.

The video has reached over 35 million views online even getting the attention of Hollywood actress Jennifer Garner. And it’s all thanks to Deon van Zyl.

The educator at Curro 
Durbanville said that the idea behind the Spirit Cup-winning routine is each school chooses a theme and then works on a war cry around that theme.

He explains: “The Spirit Cup is just as coveted as the Athletics cup. “Our theme this year was ‘Animation’, so we used songs from animated movies such as Lion King, Trolls, Frozen, Shrek, The 
Little Mermaid, Finding Nemo [and so on].

“The images are then linked to the music. The whole thing was also a bit tongue-in-cheek, and I think that is why the learners enjoyed it so much.”

“I brainstormed different ideas with the teacher assisting me this year, Mrs Corlette Nadel-Nel and the ten Grade 12 cheerleaders.

“We finally settled on this theme. The idea to do flashes [colour changes in the crowd to create images] as part of the Spirit Cup has been around for quite some time.”

He said that the school had about 638 learners on the stands and 113 athletes competing, but did not have much time to prepare due to academics, sport and cultural activities and had to practise about 12 hours 30 minutes, over a period of about two weeks.

Deon adds of the response: “It was something so unexpected. It just proves the power of social media in our society today. This hype created a wonderful sense of school spirit and we are just overjoyed with the 
positive response.

“People are predominantly very positive about the video and it’s absolutely wonderful. We are not the only school who does this, it was just out of pure luck that ours was noticed.”

The video was posted by proud parent Tania Page, 54, who said she never expected the video to gain so much traction.

The mom says: “To see it trending so massively, with millions of views and international recognition, is completely surreal.

“It’s one thing to share a special moment, but to have it resonate with people worldwide is something I never expected.”

“When I saw major platforms sharing it and even celebrities like Jennifer Garner reposting it, I was in absolute disbelief.

“It’s amazing to see how something so real and unfiltered can resonate with so many people.”