Rutherford College Retains Polyfest Dance Challenge Crown at Polyfest 2026

Another win for Rutherford College

View the dance below

2026 RC Dance Challenge Video Link On Instagram

2026 RC Dance  Challenge Video On Facebook: 

Last year, the Rutherford Cultural Committee made its first entry into the annual Polyfest Dance Challenge video competition and achieved outstanding success, emerging as champions. Building on that momentum, this year the committee  once again entered with the same passion, creativity, and commitment—and has proudly retained the title of Polyfest Dance Challenge Champions.

This achievement is especially significant given the large number of schools that could have participated in this year’s competition, making it a remarkable accomplishment for the entire Rutherford College Arts and Cultural community. What makes it even more impressive is that the entire process—from choreography and teaching to filming and editing—was completed within just one month. It reflects not only consistent excellence, but also the strength of collaboration, innovation, and student leadership across cultural and performing arts groups. The winning video, now featured on Polyfest’s Instagram and Facebook pages, gained an impressive 39.4k views to date. It has also been heartwarming to see strong support from alumni, including former student leaders  and past staff members, who have engaged with and celebrated the video online. 

The Dance Challenge video was created to celebrate the diverse cultures within Rutherford College and to strengthen a sense of community. It brought together students from multiple cultural and leadership groups, showcasing not only their talent in dance but also their skills in event management, storyboarding, camerawork, and editing. With new editors and multiple camera operators involved, the collaborative approach this year proved highly successful, resulting in a dynamic and impactful final product. 

This achievement would not have been possible without the dedication of many students. Cultural Committee Heads Charlotte Dye and Abbey Nguyen provided outstanding coordination and choreography, supported by a committed working committee and a talented camera and editing team. Students from a wide range of groups—including Tuvaluan, African, Bollywood, Kapa Haka, Chinese, Filipino, K-Pop, Cultural Committee members, and Prefects—participated enthusiastically. We also managed to get the 3 houses on board during assemblies to do their part for the video.  Despite busy preparations for Polyfest and Fiafia Night, many gave up their lunch breaks to contribute to the challenge, demonstrating exceptional commitment and teamwork. 

The Cultural Committee  also extends its appreciation to the many staff and supporters who made this possible. From guidance and encouragement provided by the Performing Arts Department, to logistical support from Deans, teachers,  the Dance Challenge was truly a collective effort. Special acknowledgement to the 2025 Cultural Committee leaders who laid the foundation for this success. 

The success of the Dance Challenge is a testament to what can be achieved through collaboration, creativity, and cultural pride. We are always looking for new student  talent. If you are a student or parent who can assist with choreography, photography and video taking, please feel free to email [email protected] - Sandi Perumal - Cultural and Arts Coordinator, Staff IC of Cultural Committee.

Last year, Rutherford’s student leaders took part in the 2025 Polyfest leaders conference, where we learnt skills on how to be good leaders, but also on the importance of being a follower/supporter first. The conference ended by learning a dance, which turned into a competition called the ‘ASB Polyfest dance challenge’. Our school’s Cultural Committee planned and collated many cultural groups and student leadership groups together to take part in the polyfest dance challenge. Created to celebrate our school’s cultures and bring our community together, this video has also earned us the title of 2025 Polyfest Dance Challenge Champions!”. 

This year we did it all again! The Cultural Committee has spent the last few weeks bringing together different cultural groups and our schools' new leadership groups to take part in this year's video. This year, our aim was to bring more people into this community we created last year, as well as making this year's video bigger and better than last. Last week we proudly sent away our 2026 ASB Polyfest dance challenge video and can now call ourselves two time ASB Polyfest dance challenge champions! Being called champions is such an amazing feeling but we know our true prize is being able to say we have built stronger relationships and brought together our whole school through this project, which is always the most rewarding outcome for me. -Charlotte Dye, Cultural Captain, Coordinator  & Choreographer for Dance Challenge.  

This is the second year I have taken part in the Dance Challenge. Last year, I was a member of the K-Pop dance group dancing in the dance challenge . This year, I had the opportunity to lead the project alongside Charlotte Dye and Sandi Perumal.

We wanted to do something different this year while still showcasing our cultural groups, as we did last year. To achieve this, we expanded filming outdoors , including events like  sports day and house assemblies. We also held a video release/review session with all contributors, which was both fun and challenging, as it required me to gather feedback and make real-time improvements to the video. 

Throughout the project, I had to manage multiple responsibilities, but the most challenging aspect for me was the editing process. Before the Dance Challenge, I had very limited experience in video editing. However, I was keen to step outside my comfort zone and take on this new skill. 

It was not an easy task, especially as a beginner, but it became a valuable learning experience. I was fortunate to learn from talented peers, and I am especially grateful to Bella and Jimmy for their patience, advice, and support during the refining  process. 

Overall, I have gained confidence, developed new skills, and created lasting memories with my friends. Most importantly, this experience deepened my appreciation of the cultural diversity within Rutherford College. -Abbey Nguyen, Cultural Captain, Coordinator & Video Editor  for Dance Challenge.

The Dance Challenge was an incredible experience to participate in. I particularly enjoyed working alongside with the Cultural Committee to develop a video worthy of first place once more for the ASB Polyfest Dance Challenge. The experience was unique and incredibly knowledgeable, as the Dance Challenge was indeed a challenge. Working collaboratively, the Committee finalized a beautiful video entry to ASB, bringing new and fresh ideas some never even thought of. I'm glad I was able to participate in making this Challenge a little less challenging! - Kaleb DuRepos , Cultural Committee, Videographer Dance Challenge 

As someone who has never danced or been involved with the dance challenge before, this experience was so much fun and such a good first experience and introduction to it. It was a very enjoyable and easy dance that I learnt in less than an hour. Being thrown in as a prefect leader for the dance challenge sounded scary to me at first but it was really so much fun helping lead and guide the rest of the prefects and dancers around. - Dylan Marais, Prefect.

I really enjoyed the dance challenge practice because I love dancing. I am probably the most “uncoordinated”  person in terms of dance  you will ever meet, but doing this dance made me feel more confident and I did not feel like I was embarrassed of the way I danced. Doing it with the other prefects and the cultural groups was a very fun experience and I felt comfortable dancing in front of people, and no one judged me. The dance was fun and upbeat, and very easy for me to remember.  -Lola Yates , Prefect.

As someone who has never dared to step onto a dance floor, I can say that I really enjoyed the Dance Challenge. I found the dance very easy to do and, more importantly, fun. Doing it with the other prefects and cultural groups, I felt surrounded by other encouraging people who loved being there. -Aayan Ghoshal , Head boy.

This year our school took part in the ASB Polyfest Dance Challenge for the second year in a row. We were able to win it last year, so we focused a lot of energy and hard work into it again this year. As a result we were able to call ourselves the ASB Polyfest Dance Challenge two time champions! Although we had a similar concept to last year's, we wanted to catch people's eyes and keep it interesting. So, we filmed the different cultural groups at different places in the school and had the whole school support us by cheering “ASB Polyfest 2026!”. This dance challenge is an amazing way to display our diversity and how we give everything our all, here at Rutherford College. I personally love being a part of it as I feel connected to the wider school. The ASB Polyfest Dance Challenge was a great experience to be a part of again, and hopefully next year we will become three time winners. -Lily Parkinson  & Samantha Bonkovich -  Cultural Committee, Dance Challenge Working Committee Member.

I have also had the pleasure and opportunity of being a part of the dance challenge for ASB polyfest, which our school has held the title for for two consecutive years. The dance challenge further shows our diversity and how we all have different ways we choose to interpret music and moving, while also including a collaborative dance at the end that shows we are all one community in which we want to perform and showcase our and each other's cultures. It’s inspiring to see more groups continue to grow throughout Rutherford, and the support our peers give towards all the hard work. I have gained confidence, many dance skills and social skills throughout the process of both opportunities and believe it’s such a good way to express and include yourself in the wider community of the school to meet new people and learn new things. - Isha Baynosa, Cultural Committee, Dance Challenge Working Committee Member.

by Sandi Perumal, Charlotte Dye, Abbey Nguyen, Kaleb DuRepos, Dylan Marais, Lola Yates, Aayan Ghoshal, Lily Parkinson, Samantha Bonkovich and Isha Baynosa