Wearing tricolour costumes, the children marched in to dance to the tunes of We have got our freedom and Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna. The crowds cheered on as children dressed as Mother Teresa, Shaheed Bhagat Singh and Shivaji danced together.

“This year being the 150th anniversary of the 1857 uprising, the Ministry of Defence decided to keep the theme strictly to the independence movement,” said Ashok, one of the organising members of the children’s show. “We gave the theme to schools, which choreographed the dances accordingly,” he added.

And this year, children not only danced to the tunes of patriotic songs but also received lessons on their significance, said Shekhawat, sports teacher at Kamal Model Public School. “We started practising in August and in order to instil the value of what they were doing, we would intersperse dance sessions with history lessons,” he said.

Anamika Mishra and Heena Dawar, both students of Class VI, agreed that performing on patriotic songs has been a learning experience for them. “I know by now that women of the country have risen against all odds, that Bhagat Singh was a martyr and many more such things,” said 11-year-old Heena, repeating the lyrics of her song. A more sober Anamika said there was more of a “feel-good” factor in her performance than pure patriotism.

Besides patriotism, girls from four girl schools of Delhi showcased the courage, dedication, harmony and zest that symbolises new generation women. They played cricket, tennis and hockey in their five-minute performance to emphasise their point. Around 1,400 students from 25 schools in Delhi and the NCR participated in the dances.