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On Wednesday, June 5, the Lycée Français de Bahrein (Bahrain’s French School) posted on Youtube what is to be remembered as Bahrain’s first lipdub ever!

What is a lipdub by the way? The primary goal is to gather as many individuals as possible, spread them throughout one location (the school), and have them sing and dance to a particular song as the camera travels around in a single continuous shot.

One shot means no editing. Anything going wrong during the shooting and it’s back to the start. Music is dubbed in later.

At Lycée Français the students lip-synched and danced throughout the school, complete with costumes and props.

One hundred students performed as students as well as scientists, dancers, actors, basketball players and musicians. Some members of staff joined along the way.

It only took the teens and their teacher three weeks to assign parts, plan everybody’s role and placement, finalise the choreography and  get the finished product.

Most of it was done during lunch breaks. There was a lot of input from the pupils who revealed many talents, unusual skills and most of all a lot of fun.

Through such a project you can feel the sense of community, the pride of being and working together. 

In the end children, teachers and parents alike feel proud of being part of the French-speaking community. This has been a very refreshing moment.

You have to make it serious enough while preserving the spontaneity of the kids. Any lipdub involving children that is over-planned is bound to fail. You have to guide while retaining the vibrancy and the fun!

Hervé Coureau, English and music teacher at the Lycée, who directed and filmed the video.

*Editor’s note: To watch the video, follow the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZY5a0TwApY  or go to the Youtube page and enter lipdub bahrain as keywords.