Dance Academy
Assessment Night
On Tuesday, 27th of May, students from the Dance Academy performed for assessment to a sold-out audience. This is the only time of the year where all of our students from year 7 to 12 perform on the same night, so it was a great opportunity for our community to see how our program progresses through each year level.
Our junior students are being marked on how well they reproduce choreography safely and accurately; how expressively they use space, time and energy; how they interpret the music and how confidently they perform and project.
Our senior students are assessed based on the VCE and VET dance curriculum. Thank you to Amy and Julia for providing feedback to our senior students! Students had the opportunity to listen to our Principal, Ms Millard, and her sister Olivia Millard, who are both advocates of Performing Arts. It was great to hear about their experiences and their perspective of the importance of dance education.
Well done to all students who were involved and to Miss Occhietti, Ms Wotherspoon and Miss Foster for helping the night run smoothly.
Victorian State Schools Spectacular 2025
The Spectacular will be performed twice on Saturday, 13 September, at John Cain Arena, followed by a television broadcast in December. Rehearsals have commenced for this year’s production which will showcase more than 3,000 Victorian government school students in a performance of music, song, dance, circus and backstage areas such as audio, lighting, vision and stage management.
Congratulations to the following Berwick College students on successfully auditioning and receiving a role in this year’s production:
Laila Cameron-Dukes – Year 8 – First Nations Ensemble
Estelle Greene – Year 9 – Principal Dancer
Eleanor Campbell – Year 9 – Rehearsal Stage Manager
Hydee Dalton – Year 12 – Choir
Tara Gallagher – Year 12 – Orchestra Viola
We can’t wait to see you perform!
Dance Star State Final
On Friday, 30th May, and Sunday 1st June, BCDA students competed in the Dance Star State Finals for solo and troupe dances at Rowville Secondary College. We competed against secondary schools from around Victoria for a chance to get to the Nationals competition in Hobart. We are extremely proud of the hard work that has gone into rehearsals, the resilience shown when things didn’t go to plan and the positive talk and support heard after each performance.
Congratulations to all of our soloists that were successful in getting invited to Nationals due to their high scores: Estelle Greene, Elizabeth Lawrence, Mikayla Williams, Sienna Honey, Sienna Doolin, Grace Elkin, Mikayla Ballard, Holli Clark, Keira Dorey and Lili Taivai.
Congratulations to our ballet troupe (1st place), Year 8 contemporary troupe (3rd place), VCE lyrical troupe (2nd place) and VET lyrical troupe (2nd place) who have all progressed to Nationals. Our year 9 Jazz troupe performed with high energy and beautiful technique but missed out by only two points in the toughest section for the day. Well done to our year 9’s who are always challenging themselves and working so hard in each and every class.
Berwick College Choreographic Competition
On Friday, 20th June, Berwick College students will participate in a competition where they will perform their own choreography. We welcome our adjudicator Gulcan Gulen from Fountain Gate Secondary College and Regan Gay past BCDA student as our penciller. We welcome our Berwick College community to come and watch from 3:30pm in the Performing Arts Centre.
Melissa Quenette
Director of Dance