By VEENA BHARWANI
Picture is (C) copyright to ST Damien Tan
IT WAS just an ordinary day in class for Dina (not her real name). The 15-year-old and her classmates were taking notes as their teacher conducted a lesson.
Suddenly, Dina stood up and and started dancing intensely, totally oblivious of her teacher and classmates as they called out to her.
She even lapsed into bouts of anger, like someone who was deeply disturbed.
Fearful of what she would do next, her classmates ran out of the classroom.
A couple of minutes later, Dina collapsed and fainted.
She recovered a short while later and wasn't hurt.
What her friends and teacher did not know was that she had gone into a trance apparently because of her deep involvement in kuda kepang - the traditional Javanese dance of men riding fake horses.
Imam Mohd Azmi Rabbani from Assakirin Mosque, who was called in by the principal of the secondary school to counsel the girls, said the incident last July was not an isolated event.
Another 15-year-old girl from the same school had also apparently gone into a trance in class around the same time, he said.
He said the two had been taking kuda kepang lessons on weekends.
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