IVANA URCIKÁNOVÁ :
One of my strongest memories from childhood is participating in Spartakiáda*. I was in my seventh grade of primary school. To be chosen we had to go through three concourses – beginning with the school and ending with the city wide selection. When we were finally chosen to go to Prague we were very happy. We had red dresses and under the armpits, from the bottom to the top and around the hip was a white stripe. So when we the thousand girls put our hands up, the white stripe appeared. The choreography was based on that.
We were exercising in Strahov stadium in Prague. It was huge. There was a man speaking in a megaphone giving us orders. What was ok and what was not, where to go, which group to belong. The final show was very nice, the stadium was full, everybody clapping hands.
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*Spartakiáda: Mass gymnastics display held every five years at the Strahov Stadium in Prague, Czechoslovakia. The number of performers reached 750 000 with more than 2 000 000 spectators