Page 18 - 2019 - Altiora Vol 70 Sem 1 B_Neat

18 | SEMESTER HIGHLIGHTS
YEAR 12 HSC DANCE
This year will be the first time that BMGS has had
students undertaking the HSC Dance course.
In April, the Year 12 Dance students were fortunate
enough to attend a Choreography workshop at
Riverside Theatre / Parramatta Town Hall with Sydney
Dance Company and Form Dance Projects.
They began the day with an intensive warm up led by
Sydney Dance Company teaching artists and dancers
Cooper Terry, Fiona Jopp, Lexy Panetta and Viola Iida.
Students were then led through a practical workshop
during which they explored the choreographic
techniques used by the artistic director of Sydney
Dance Company, Rafael Bonachela.
By following these techniques our students developed
their own dance phrases individually, then worked
YOUTH THEATRE FESTIVAL AT THE JOAN
In June, our Year 11 Drama students performed
at the Q Theatre’s Annual Youth Theatre Festival
(formerly Flannofest).
As the only school to have participated every year
that the Festival has run, we have a history dating
back over 21 years, and the high standard of
performance achieved by our students continues to
garner attention from those involved in the Festival,
which is staged at The Joan Theatre in Penrith.
This year, our students presented an evocative
in pairs to manipulate these into a pas de deux.
After this, students then worked in small groups to
choreograph short performances using the techniques
they had learned.
Students were delighted to view excerpts of ‘Cinco’,
one of the works in Sydney Dance Company’s current
triple bill ‘Season One’ followed by a Q&A. ‘Cinco’ was
developed by using the choreographic techniques
our students had worked with during the day. All
students found the day beneficial in terms of their
own choreographic practice.
As part of the HSC Dance examination, students are
required to choreograph their own work that is then
danced for them by a younger student. This is in
addition to the Core Performance, Major Study and
the written examination.
Physical Theatre piece entitled “Hearafter”,
exploring parental relationships through the frame
of refugees, child soldiers, childhood games and
innocence.
The students were extremely fortunate to have
gained experience working in a professional theatre
setting with lighting and theatre tech, in addition
to their term working with professional theatre
director Ms Maggie Davis (pictured below, left, in
rehearsal with the students).