The First Performing Arts Week was a big success!

Arts

It’s hard to believe that today is already the last day of the 2018/2019 school year! This is typically an incredibly exciting, but also incredibly busy time of year, so I would like to share details of the recent Performing Arts Week.

The theme of the Performing Arts Week was one of sharing and togetherness: Students, teachers, parents and staff from the three school sections coming together to have fun with music and drama, which was abundantly evident throughout the week of activities.

We started the week with lunchtime busking which drew a lot of interested onlookers as our young performers shared their developing artistry with the school community. Busking acts ranged from Drama students performing mime and clown acts, ukulele and singing spots, keyboard players, vocalists, violinists, flutists, recorder pieces, a saxophone improvisation and a gym/dance item all on display. It was exciting to see and lots of sounds certainly reverberated around the Aula.

Tuesday witnessed an energetic round of drama games led by Ms. Raine and Ms. Appel at lunchtime where over 50 students enjoyed exploring improvisation and socializing. Following this, Ms. Lee led an impressive open jam session after school for any level-ability instrumentalist. Over 20 students joined Ms. Lee, as well as staff and parents, jamming together on favorites such as “Lion Sleeps Tonight” and the twelve bar blues. It was wonderful to welcome back alumni Jossy Russell, who once again delighted us with his amazing improvisatory keyboard skills.

The Elementary School choir entertained an audience on Wednesday at lunchtime. The young singers enjoyed sharing with their parents songs they have been working on throughout the school year such as “Rhythm of Life”, “It’s In My desk” and “God Help the Outcasts”. The students even managed to convince the audience to join in with the final item by teaching the parents the words to sing for “Chumbara”!

Thursday was a lively event with Ms. Lee again leading a round of dancing in the Aula at break time. Lots of fun was had and some interesting moves were on display.

The fitting finale for the week was the composers’ competition, held on Friday. Seven entrants from Grade 7 students through to two staff members performed their own original pieces for the judge, Cedric Wiegel (our “Composer in Residence” for the week). Due to the high standard of work that was presented, Cedric decided that all entrants were worthy of commendation. Well done to Arnav (Grade 7), Elias (Grade 8), Kiara (Grade 9), Kiara (Grade 11), Franziska Knothe (Grade 11), Mr. Steinberg and Mr. Landmann.

Running concurrently with all of these activities, the Performing Arts Department also hosted an open house. All Elementary School parents were invited to come and participate in a Music and/or Drama lesson together with their child. The feedback given suggests this initiative has a lot of merit and the parents thoroughly enjoyed experiencing what it feels like to be a learner in these Drama and Music lessons. Great job to all those courageous parents who volunteered to join in the Elementary School Performing Arts open house.

A big thanks to the Performing Arts teachers who ably assisted and led different activities through the week, and a big thanks to all those brave students, staff and parents who came along and got involved in some, or all, of the 2018 Performing Arts Week events.

Nevann Hardwick
Head of Department Performing Arts

Next Post
Mathematics review for the Summer holidays
Previous Post
Living things sensational senses