Our College Dance Showcase is an eagerly anticipated highlight of our Performing Arts calendar that celebrates our students’ talent and hard work. This year, through three shows including a matinee in Term 2, more than 150 dancers between Year 7 -13 demonstrated exceptional standards of work, bringing a mesmerising and eclectic spectacle to a hall packed with audience.

From hip hop to jazz, contemporary and classical ballet, the audience were kept entertained with over 35 performances.

This largely student-led production was made up of a mix of co-curricular and curriculum dance performances from the Dance Academy, student led dance troupes, class groups and student choreographed NCEA Level 2 and 3 pieces.

For those undertaking Dance as an NCEA course of study at Senior level, achievement objectives include choreographic assessments. Our NCEA Level 2 (Year 12) and NCEA Level 3 (Year 13) students had the opportunity to develop different skills through the process of choreographing for NCEA assessment and for Dance Troupes in the showcase; learning to manage auditions and dancers, organising rehearsals and costumes, and managing timelines while working with dancers, and not to mention getting involved in the technical aspects of the production. Creativity is fostered as students developed themes and concepts for their dance works, while exploring dance as a medium of expression.

Year 12 students explored themes relating to the power of nature while our Year 13 students explored a variety of themes from relationships to isolation and creation of dance films.

This year, the Year 10 to Year 13 dance curriculum classes all performed in class groups for NCEA dance performance assessments. The Year 10 class dance was choreographed by guest teacher Andrew Cesan, the Year 11 class dance was choreographed by guest teacher Brandon Carter-Chan, while the Year 12 class dance was choreographed by Year 12 students Maia Salesa, Ethan Li and Jacqueline Masamba-Hunter. The Year 13 class dance was choreographed collaboratively by all Year 13 Dance students.

For the showcase, our Dance Academy classes performed a variety of genres. Guest teacher Erin Meek taught and choreographed the Junior Contemporary Academy group, Kate Romans taught and choreographed the Junior Hip Hop class, Kimberly Green taught and choreographed Senior Jazz class, Ichiro Harada taught and choreographed the Senior Contemporary class, Geordan Wilcox taught and choreographed the Junior and Senior Ballet classes while Year 13 student Sophie Toner taught and  choreographed Junior Jazz.

One of the highlights of the Dance Showcase was a captivating performance by the College dance troupe SKC Mega Schools Crew Dance Troupe led by Danni Greenfield, Ayaana Patel, Panen Gu and Ethan Li, which qualified for the HHI International Hip Hop Dance competition this year.

This year we also introduced and included the Te Ao Haka group who performed an inspiring and powerful cultural dance which included elements of Kapa Haka. 

Throughout the show, our dancers showcased impressive movements and perfect synchrony proving that we have some exceedingly talented dancers across genres.

Head of Dance Mr Geordan Wilcox complimented all dancers for their amazing energy and commitment. He said, “It has been fantastic to have so many talented graduate students being involved as guest teachers and choreographers for the Dance Academy. We are so lucky to have so many creative, talented, and dedicated dance students and incredibly fortunate to be able to come together to celebrate this in live performance. It is a pleasure to be involved in this process and to see first-hand the growth of students while they develop their skills, confidence, and the level of talent we have here at the College. We are committed to continue creating opportunities and meaningful learning experiences to help our student develop their skills in a supportive environment.”

A showcase of this calibre takes an enormous amount of work. From early morning practise sessions to squeezing in time to rehearse formations and timing over morning tea and lunch, our students have accumulated hundreds of hours of rehearsals between them in preparation for the showcase. It was hard work, but we know our students enjoyed every minute of it.

Well done to all involved. The performances were outstanding!

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