On Wednesday the 5th of August we took a Junior Dance group (Year 1-3) and Senior Dance group (Year 4-6) to the Perth Convention & Exhibition Centre and a Christian Dance group to Mercy College to compete in the Catholic Performing Arts Festival. We are incredibly proud of all these students who did an amazing job representing our school.
WOW... What an incredible job they did! Our Creative Dance students took to the stage with confidence, energy and enthusiasm, and truly showed what wonderful performers we have at our school. It was fantastic to see all of their hard work and rehearsals pay off. They all had so much fun and showcased just how much talent, dedication and passion exists for Performing Arts in our school community.
The Junior group performed a high energy, fun dance about bedtime stories coming to life in our dreams and had the whole audience clapping along. From Unicorns to Horses and Dinosaurs to Chipmunks, our Junior Dancers had the audience laughing as they discovered these stories jumped off the pages and into life!
The Senior group performed a dance called 'Nothing is What it seems' which explored the idea that you don't know somebody by just looking at their appearance. With Fighter Pilots doing ballet, Princesses doing hip hop, Grannies doing acrobatics and Donkeys doing lyrical- they kept the audience wondering what was next. What started as 4 groups excluding others because they didn't seem to 'fit in' eventually came together as a joyful celebration of individuality, differences and inclusion.
The Christian Dance group performed a very emotional Tribute to Mums which followed the story of becoming a Mother and raising children through all the unseen sacrifices and eternal love. The impact of this dance was marked as Outstanding and was described by the Adjudicator as "a beautiful dance presentation, clearly constructed and beautifully executed. The dance honoured mothers beautifully!". There was not a dry eye in the building. Both myself (and Mr H) were streaming tears from start to finish!
A huge thank you to our parents and families for your ongoing support- particularly for getting students to rehearsals, helping them prepare and encouraging them every step of the way. Your support plays such an important part in making opportunities like this possible.
We would also like to sincerely thank the Shire of Merredin for their contributions through the Merredin Shire Community Grant to help fund our participation and costumes for the Christian Dance. As well as Collgar for their contributions through their Community Grants to help fund our participation and costumes for the Junior & Senior Dance groups. Thank you also to the St Mary's P&F for their contributions to these groups as well. We are so grateful to have a community that gets behind our students and school to help provide opportunities to shine in these events.
I could not have done this without the staff support both in rehearsals and on the day/night so thank you so much to all that helped out. I really appreciate it!
But the biggest congratulations go to our incredible performing students! You worked hard, supported one another, gave it your all and absolutely shone on stage. You should be so proud of yourselves. It takes a lot of courage to perform on such a huge stage with an audience that big!
Jess Silver
Specialist Teacher
