Arts
Junior Arts Festival 2018
The Junior Arts transformed TAPAC Theatre on Friday 16th November for our annual Junior Arts Festival and Big Arts day out! Students and teachers presented incredible creativity in a spectacular show and exhibition of art to celebrate a year’s work. Thank you to our talented HOD Drama – Robert Pollock for hosting as MC.
Special thanks to the Parent Action Group for providing drinks and nibbles to mark the occasion.
Thanks to TAPAC and staff for support on the day and at all events throughout the year. Thank you also to all the teachers who worked tirelessly with preparation and set-up, with rehearsing juniors for the shows and even more so for your help with the afternoon performances. A special thank you to Danielle Voyce and 10Art students for assisting front of house. This event couldn’t happen without you all!
Enjoy the Junior Arts Festival photo-documentation to follow and special thanks to Nina Gastreich Photography for so brilliantly recording this year’s event.
Why study the Arts?
The Arts – Music, Art, Dance, Drama instill a passion for learning and for life. They teach us how to express ourselves, engage in challenges and develop cross-curricular strengths in creativity, critical thinking and communication.
Our Arts learners are highly motivated advocates for discovery, innovation and collaboration; they are problem solvers, incredible thinkers and are performance driven across subject areas to pursue intuitive thought with confidence.
Self-expression is shaped both in and outside of the classroom and our learners are encouraged to be adaptive, explore change and pursue ideas with passion. The Arts promotes leadership, teamwork and participation. The creative journey is limitless and everything learnt is transferable to support future careers and endeavours in life beyond the school gates.
Looking forward to the year ahead.
Thanks to all for the continued support this year. Have a wonderful, safe and happy holiday season.
arts@wsc.school.nz Kirsty Britton – Arts Coordinator
What have Dance students been doing this year??
Trips to the Theatre
- Orpheus choreographed by Michael Parmenter
- Giselle performed by the English National Ballet
- YouDance, the Auckland youth dance festival
- Black Grace Dance Company’s Crying Men
Visiting artists
- Unitec 3rd year students performed and led dance workshops for Year 9, 10 and 11
- Tupua Tigafua – choreographed a dance on the Year 11 Dance
- Lucy Lynch taught NZDC repertoire to Year 13s
- Chris Ofanoa – hip hop tutor for Year 13
- Hip Hop and Breakdance tutors Richie Cesan and Laurent Dunningham taught dances to Year 10 and 11 Dance
- Touch Compass Dance Company led a Matariki workshop for all Dance students
Performances
- Ponsonby and Pasadena Intermediates Tour – Year10s and 11s
- Year 13 Choreography Show ‘Relfections’
- WSC Dance Showcase ‘Collections’ – All Year 11, 12 and 13 Dance students
- YouDance Festival – two Year 13 student choreographies
- Ignite show at Auckland Tempo Dance Festival – two Year 13 choreographies
- Prize giving performances
Other Opportunities for Dance students
- Scholarship workshop for Year 13s and teachers at Auckland University Faculty of Education
- Pre-audition workshop with Unitec lecturer
- Weekly breakfast for Year 13 dance students
- Open Hip Hop classes for Dance students at lunchtimes in Term 4
Congratulations to Georgia Menhennet and Robert Bloomfield, who have been offered places on Unitec’s Bachelor of Performing and Screen Arts (Contemporary Dance) and Eleanor Tubman who was accepted into Auckland University’s Bachelor of Dance Studies.
HOD Dance – Chloe Davison
Why the ARTS
In a world where there is unprecedented change and where so many of young people are unsure about their future and what they want to be doing when they leave school, we have to ask ourselves as educators how can we best serve their needs.
At a teacher’s workshop last week I had a conversation with a theatre practitioner who works in schools around the country. She said what most worried her were the numbers of students who were unwilling to take risks in the work. The result being work that was bland and unimaginative.
In drama, taking risks is an essential element of the creative process. Indeed without risk there is no discovery as the alternative is to rely on what we know and what we have done before.
In the Arts we encourage our students to explore new ideas in a safe environment, to share their ideas with others and to take creative leaps of faith. There is nothing more challenging and exciting than embarking on a creative journey, the end point of which is unknown.
In a world where change, especially technological change is so rapid, no student leaving school can possibly predict the working environment they will inhabit in five or ten years’ time. It is our job as teachers to prepare our students for this ever-changing world by giving the skills and the confidence to embrace and explore change.
The drama studio is an ideal place for students to learn the skills that will allow them to be creative, adaptive thinkers. It is also the ideal environment for them to learn the skills to negotiate and communicate positively with others, as virtually all of the work in drama requires a commitment to working creatively within a group dynamic.
The majority of our students will not go on to work in the film, television or theatre industry. However, the skills they learn in drama will empower them to be confident, creative and communicative thinkers along whatever vocational pathway they find themselves in the future.
Stanislavsky, the Great Russian theatre practitioner of the 20th century created the “magic if.” He challenged his actors to ask the simple question; “What if?” This is the same question scientists ask in their research. We need to be able to image, to dream in order to be able to explore. Insights and discoveries come from exploration and exploration involves venturing into the unknown; it’s scary, it’s challenging, and it’s also incredibly rewarding. But let’s not forget that for every success, for every discovery, there have been countless failures upon which that success has been built.
In the Arts we ask our students to take the risks, to accept the failures and to build on them to create something exceptional.
So when your child tells you he or she wants to take drama, or dance, or art or music don’t ask them what job they will get out of it. Instead ask yourself what benefit the skills learnt in the Arts (confidence, lateral thinking, listening, leading, sharing, accepting and enhancing others’ ideas) will be in whatever job they choose.
HOD Drama – Robert Pollock
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