Performing Arts Focus

What an Action Packed Term we’ve had in Performing Arts! 

Under the Dragon’s Wing, It’s a New Season, Busking for Change, and a showcase performance from Thornbury High School’s year 7 and 8 band, featuring our very own FPS brass students! But don’t think we’ve wound things up just yet, there’s still plenty to look forward to in term 4 – a grade 5/6 performance extravaganza, THS hip hop collaboration and our end of year festive performance!

Foundation

This term we have been taking a musical tour around the world. We have been getting out our virtual passports, boarding an imaginary plane and each week visiting a new country and exploring how song and dance is culturally significant to different people and places. We began by staying local, before moving onto the New Zealand and the Pacific, practising rhythm and coordination as we learnt poi dance, clapping stick games and sasa. We jaunted off to Europe to France and Italy, learning how to sing in rounds and learning a tarantella. We finished our musical tour in China, where we made fans and enjoyed learning a Chinese fan dance. 

Year 1 and 2

I hardly need to write about what the year 1 and 2 students have been doing this term, as I’m sure many of you came to see the hard work we’ve been doing come to life on stage last month! The dedication, focus and effort all of our students have put into this concert was evident on stage. We are so enormously proud of every single student, who learnt choreography, rehearsed ukulele chords, practised lines, made decorations, overcame nerves and shone so brightly on stage. I also want to say how proud I am of the grade 6 helpers who gave up their lunch and recess time to help and support our ukulele players and then work as stage crew at the performance! 

 The video link to watch the concert will be sent out in the coming weeks. 

A final thank you to Sarsha Cuthbertson, Tanya Baker, Jamie Ryder and Alice Forsythe for your help designing and creating the set. 

Year 3 and 4 

The Year 3s and 4s have had the best time learning about the art of puppetry. I have repeated this but I think it is worth mentioning again that they exhibited creativity and resilience in creating their very own puppet show: Under The Dragon’s Wings. 

We hope to put their beautiful puppets up for an exhibition so that everyone in our community can view their marvellous ingenuity. These puppets were made from everyday materials (and lots of glue) they are therefore a sight to behold. One of most common feedback I received from the adults was the children’s amazing ability to remember all their lines. We should be very proud of how much they have achieved! Fresh off their puppetry experience, the children have explored the relationship between Science and Music, giving them a little teeny taste of their future STEM learning next year. They created a card for someone special using this knowledge and their ability to sing in rounds. Two very special people we would love to thank are Ralph Falcone and Rob Stewart. 

Thank you Ralph for the many hours you have put in with creating the set and Rob for the late nights and precision needed in engineering our sound and visual cues. Our friend of FPS, Asher Radcliff was also essential in creating our beautiful lightshow to complement the show. 

Year 5 and 6

Auditions have wrapped up and we are well underway in our preparation for the Grade 5 and 6 production of Porridge! The Musical. This will be held on the 14th of December at Loyola College at 7:00 p.m. Thank you for everyone who has volunteered, we will be in touch soon and we are still welcoming other grown-ups interested in this. 

Choir, Concert Band and Brass

Our choir and concert band really outdid themselves this term. What a performance they put on! Thank you to everyone who turned up and supported our musicians and the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. With your help, we raised over $1,400 which will be used to help remote indigenous communities with their story telling and literacy.

Next term we will begin preparing for our end of year festive performance, which is always a highlight of the calendar for us!

~ Keri and Olivia