Raison d'être' Dance Open Evening
On Thursday 28 and Friday 29 June, AvÐÔ°® Dance students treated families and friends to a spectacular evening of fun and dance. Over 70 students from Years 7 to 12 performed on the evening, with both curriculum and extracurricular group involved.
The title of the Dance Open Evening was inspired by the French saying ‘Raison d'être' which means ‘reason for being’. For many of our Dance students, dance is their reason for being and serves an important purpose in their lives. The performance attempted to explore the function that dance plays in our society and was split into three parts: ritual dance, social dance and artistic dance.
We opened the evening with a liturgical dance, a prayer in physical form, and an example of one of the ways in which dance plays a ritual role at the College. Then it was time for the audience to discover their love of dance by joining the students in participating in a number of classic social dances such as the Chicken Dance, the Macarena and the Nutbush. I was overwhelmed by the huge number of audience members who chose to enthusiastically participate. It was amazing to see so many people on stage, coming together through dance and the students certainly loved being able to dance with their family and friends.
After interval the students put on an artistic performance for the audience, showing off the hard work they have put in over the last term during their rehearsals. The dances covered a variety of genres such as contemporary, ballet, hip hop and jazz, and looked at a variety of themes ranging from entertaining fun to asking the audience to consider serious topics and questions. The students conducted themselves with impressive professionalism throughout the evening and I could not be prouder of them.
Many people made this performance possible and must be thanked:
- The College Leadership team
- James Dove, Head of Arts
- Michelle Hunt, Arts Administrator and Front of House manager
- Caroline Stevenson, dance teacher
- Backstage supervision: Anjuli Duncan, Amanda Fernihough, Judy Coelho, Kelsi Davis
- Student helpers: Corran O’Brien, Annbel Biscotto, Ava Versacio, Luka Babich, Theo Pascoe, Melissa Holloway, Kalea Gowland, Megan Schutte, Jess Giannini, Marina Piper, Lauren Hislop, Claire Cantwell.
Caroline Fuhr
Teacher in Charge of Dance
