Performing Arts

Communicating with the Specialist Team

We look forward to partnering with you in 2022, and welcome your input:

Penelope Lang (Performing Arts) penelope.lang@education.vic.gov.au 

It has been great to be back in the classroom and re-connecting with everyone. We have had a busy couple of weeks. Time certainly does fly when you're having fun. A big congratulations to Ruby Hutchings and Laura Johnson-Hayes who will be the Performing Arts Captains in 2022. 

This week we welcomed 3 local primary schools (Tecoma, Emerald and Selby) to join us for our first mass dance rehearsal for the Victorian State Schools Spectacular. Our 16 dancers enjoyed over four hours of dancing...whilst trying not to mess up their hair for the school photos! All of the dance instructional clips have been added to the VSSS 2022 Google Classroom so students can rehearse at home. Please make sure you have accepted your invite to this classroom and encourage your child to practice at home as much as possible. A very BIG shout out to the dance extraordinaire Kim Van Hoorn for supporting our dance students in VSSS. What a talent!

GLEE club started back this week with our new teacher Roxy. We would love to have a few more people join so the students can enjoy the experience of singing in harmony with each other. These lessons do cost, however the first lesson is free. So please encourage your child to come along next week (Wednesday at 12.30pm in the library) to try it out.

Our Foundation students continued to practice singing the class roll whilst pitch matching (singing in tune). We sang 'Hot Cross Buns' whilst keeping a steady beat on our knees then clapping in time. I introduced them to their class song for our school production, 'The Wizard of Oz'. They will be performing as little chickens on Dorothy's farm. They enjoyed the improvised dance game 'Rock Stars' and have started to learn about our different percussion instruments.

The Year One and Two students worked with partners to improve their 'mirroring' skills (in preparation for learning new choreography). We played the game 'Car Pool' whilst concentrating on our spatial awareness, another important skill for performing on stage with others. Both levels have now been introduced to their new songs for our school production. We also looked at the elements of 'Beat and Rhythm' and the relevance of this to dancing. It was great to watch so many students master 'the beat in their feet'. We relaxed to the visualisation, 'The Hare and the Tortoise'. This was a beautiful reminder about taking our time and never giving up.

The Year Three and Four students worked collaboratively to create a sound effect cannon using their names as inspiration. Congratulations to 3/4C who completed this challenge in the fastest time. We spent some time discussing what it means for musicians to 'cover' someone else's song. We looked at all of the different 'cover' versions of the song, 'Dancing in the Street' starting back in 1964 with 'Martha and the Vandellas'. Students have now started to learn the lyrics and choreography to the Atomic Kitten 'cover' of 'Dancing in the Street'. It is very fast....but lots of fun!

The Year Five and Six students completed their 'Audition Application' forms for 'The Wizard of Oz' and selected the character that they plan to audition for. They received their scripts and they should now be busy learning their lines for next week. We prepared a 'Recipe for Success' and each student added an ingredient that will help make their audition spectacular. We looked at Michael Rosen's 'Tips for Performing' and discussed things such as tone and emphasis, speed and pace, gestures and movement and bringing a touch of silliness and buckets of enthusiasm to every performance.

Production auditions will be held next Thursday 17th March between 12.30pm and 3.30pm.