Performing Arts

Easter Liturgy

As part of the Easter Liturgy, Drama and Theatre students from Years 9, 11 and 12 worked collaboratively to devise and perform the central Act 3 in St John’s passion, Jesus’ trial before Pilate.

The students'   creative performance communicated the important question, who is being judged and by whom?

 ‘The Voice’

Congratulations to past pupil, Jas Winter (Class of 2019) for her recent stunning performance on ‘The Voice’. Jas performed a unique interpretation of Runnin' by Beyonce and received accolades by the judges and three chairs! 

Throughout her time at Kilbreda, Jas was a committed Performing Arts student.  She took part in School Productions, The Little Mermaid, Hairspray and Thoroughly Modern Millie.  She was a member of the School Choir, sang at Music Concerts and completed both VCE Drama and VCE Theatre Studies. 

Jas is through to the next round of ‘The Voice’ and has chosen Guy Sebastian, who spoke highly of her talent and special qualities, to be her mentor.

We wish Jas well in the next part of her journey on ‘The Voice’.

Kerryn Holden

Learning Leader:

Performing Arts

VCE Drama excursion - ‘Slap, Bang, Kiss’

On 27 April the VCE Drama class went to the Melbourne Theatre Company in Southbank to watch the play, Slap, Bang, Kiss. 

The play follows the stories of three young people and the series of events that transformed them into global symbols of revolution through the power of social media. 

The stories consisted of the slap; Immi a 16-year-old girl slaps a peacemaker, bang; Sofia, after being shot at school, makes an impassioned speech about school shootings and kiss; Darby attempts to break the world record for the longest kiss with his crush Daniel in a Woollies carpark. 

Slap, Bang, Kiss focused on the theme of activism, hope and fighting for change. The performances of the actors were strong and the play, though simple in design, was powerful in communicating its message.

I learnt from watching the performance, the importance of standing up for what is right no matter what age you are, and that change cannot happen unless you do something to make the change. 

Sophie Campbell

Year 10 

Chunky Moves

On 25 March, our Unit 1 and 3 students had the fantastic opportunity to travel to the Chunky Move Studios in the performing arts precinct of Southbank, to experience a choreographic workshop with a leading Australian dance company.

'Chunky Moves' have been Melbourne’s premier contemporary dance company since 1998. They describe themselves as creating “bold, visually striking and genre defying dance works. These works are experiments that merge the body with other forms, explore new ideas and materials and respond to different spaces and contexts”. Their projects and choreographic works aim to “extend the influence of the artform in the public realm and increase the visibility of contemporary dance”. 

Our students worked with Kyle Shanks in a composition workshop which aimed to expand their movement vocabulary to assist with choreographing their solos. This workshop provided our students with some new tools to assist them to feel confident in the creation of their own choreography. Our students took this workshop on with a spirit of adventure, challenging themselves as they expanded what they know dance to be. They responded to the deeply creative improvisation stimulus receptively, dodging imagined laser beams and taking on the movement of an octopus, physicalising the idea of brains in each limb that want to explore the space. Kyle was an attentive and engaging workshop leader who guided our students with inspiring tasks throughout, always encouraging the notion of “play”. 

It is in this spirit that they learnt movement that could be used and manipulated through a large group improvisation which was my favourite moment of the workshop. Watching a piece of dance unfold spontaneously with the tools gleaned earlier in the workshop was very exciting. Our students loved not just the workshop itself but even the experience of travelling to professional studios. They learned that they can access open classes throughout the year independently to continue to expand their dance practice. It was a truly wonderful experience.

Unit 3 – Incursion with Heath Anthony

Throughout Term 1 our Unit 3/4 Dance students had the incredible opportunity to work with world class choreographer Heath Anthony for their Outcome 3 Group Dance. 

Heath is a professional in the dance industry but came from a similar background as many of our students, beginning at a local ballet school learning Tap, Ballet and Jazz. Five years later he was accepted into the Australian Ballet School where he trained the Vaganova method. Heath was then accepted into the Victorian College of the Arts where he studied for his final years of schooling. When Heath finished his studies at the VCA, he was accepted into the Joffrey Ballet School and also the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. Upon completing three years at WAAPA, Heath was offered a position to teach and choreograph in New York which is where he worked for the next five years. 

Heath has since started his own company, DIRECTION MGMT, which is a creative project company. The company recently launched its own apparel line called SOLITUDE. DIRECTION MGMT is operating from Melbourne and hopes to move to New York in the near future! 

This is the third year we have been lucky enough to have Heath choreograph and teach a dance work for our students. This year’s class have enjoyed the challenge of mastering his technical and innovative movement in a piece of their very own. The work they learnt was reflecting on their experiences in lockdown and the contrasts in being back in the world again. This gives our students a meaningful way to process their experiences through the physical artform of dance. They also work through the processes of learning, rehearsing and performing a learnt group dance with a professional choreographer to support their coursework and understanding of how dancers learn movement material and develop artistry.

As a teacher, I get to watch the students respond and grow from this experience, I see them wrestling with the new movement vocabulary that then becomes part of their muscle memory, I see them start tentatively then later witness the dynamic attack and confidence they have when performing the movement. It is a privilege for me to witness this growth as a teacher. I would like to thank Heath for the commitment and talent he invests in our students every time he visits.

Cara Mitchell

Performing Arts Teacher