Senior Arts Showcase

Hip Hop trio Senior Hip Hop crew

With the gala opening showcase abandoned in August due to lockdown, we made a snap decision after the second lockdown to run a mini Senior Showcase during Arts Week. What transpired was something special – all the Senior School came together in the beautiful new space (some for the first time) to celebrate the arts, with a programme that enabled groups to share their achievements in this fragmented year.

Arts Prefect Anna Casey delivered a heartfelt opening speech, describing the difficulties encountered, the disappointments for this Year 13 cohort who were so looking forward to a grand gala opening of the wonderful new auditorium, but she also emphasised the resilience shown by all to ‘make do’ and get creative in other ways.

We started the programme with orchestras playing themes from film and musical theatre, featuring three of our prefects Hazel Francis, Lucy Bartlett and Hannah Flacks (all of whom had lead roles in the senior production, cancelled earlier in the year) singing along with the Symphony Orchestra. Then came our newly formed Clyde Street Jazz Band belting out some all-time favourites and getting the crowds rocking.

This was followed by a set from our choirs. As we know all choral singing around the world ceased during the pandemic, so this was the first time they sang publicly this year – a poignant moment of peace, tranquility and reflection.

We finished the afternoon with our dancers – again with the cancellation of the ever-popular Night of Dance, we have seen little of our co-curricular dance except in the lockdown videos. So it was a real treat to watch the award-winning Hip Hop crews and the Years 11, 12 and 13 dance troupes all delivering varied genres from jazz, funk through to contemporary styles. With nearly 1500 students/staff coming through the theatre over the afternoon, the space was packed, and Principal Ms McRae gave a heartfelt thank you to round off a very hectic, stressful and fragmented term.

Once again we have so many multi-talented girls performing across genres but special mention must go to our outstanding singer/ instrumentalists from 2020’s Year 13 cohort; gold-award-winning pianist, percussionist and singer Emma Qiu, Arts Prefect and Concert Master of the Symphony Orchestra Anna Casey, Jessica Woo, Zoe Zhu, Deborah Huang, Kaitlyn Mellon, Hazel Francis, Kristen Hansen, Grace Lin, Rachel Liu, Holly Meyers and Teresa Gu. These students have created the core of the Symphony and Chamber Orchestras, Senior Choir, Concert Band and St Cecilia Singers and with their departure at the end of this year, a legacy goes with them.

Singers Choirs

Year 13 dance Jazz band

HIP HOP TEAMS

QUALIFY FOR NATIONALS

Despite the cancellation and postponement of dance competitions at both regional and national levels, Diocesan was able to enter two of their three

Hip Hop teams into two competitions this year – the NZCAF Regionals and

DanceBrandz Nationals – both held in

Auckland.

Sunday 9 August saw the Senior Hip Hop crew (Years 12/13 students), Junior Hip Hop team (Years 7/8), and a newly formed Hip Hop trio (Years 8 to 11), competing at the NZCAF Regionals at Green Bay High School, their first competition of 2020. In what was their first performance as a team for the year, all three teams performed incredibly well during the heats, further improving their performances and upping their game in the finals.

All three teams qualified for the NZCAF Nationals in Wellington, but unfortunately were unable to attend due to COVID restrictions. Then Saturday 19 September saw our Senior Hip Hop crew (Years 9 to 11 students) compete at the DanceBrandz Nationals at Eventfinda Stadium in Auckland. This was the first competition this troupe were able to contest in 2020, and they were thrilled to take out first place.

A huge thank you to Ashley Metcalfe who has done a fantastic job mentoring these talented dancers, as well as creating choreography for and with the girls for their performances this year. Also a very big thank you to the Senior Hip Hop crew team manager Mindy Levene, and Junior team manager Anna Fisher, for all their hard work coordinating and facilitating these teams being able to compete in such a challenging year.

THE RESULTS

Senior Hip Hop crew

1st in the Mega Crew category Girl Scouts (trio)

2nd in the Mini Crew category Junior Hip Hop team

3rd in the Mega Crew category

CMNZ NATIONALS IN WELLINGTON

Only two days before the country went into lockdown for a second time, three Diocesan groups performed at the Chamber Music national finals in Wellington on 15 August. We were the best represented school at the finals, making up an impressive quarter of all groups through to the nationals across New Zealand.

This is now the sixth national final in seven years at which Diocesan musicians have been represented. All these winning groups are coached by Performing Arts Director Shelagh Thomson and it is without a doubt a great honour for these young musicians to be performing with the very best of New Zealand’s instrumentalists and to be representing the School. Of the 10 Dio musicians selected for national awards, we were the only all-female group awarded Gold at the finals – a coup for Dio!

NATIONAL FINALISTS GOLD AWARD Trio Glivenko

NATIONAL FINALISTS SILVER AWARDS Dioctesan, Aquarelles

NORTHERN REGIONAL WINNERS

Trio Glivenko

DREAM DESIGN

Year 10 student Aimee Schnuriger was one of four finalists in the 2020 Shakespeare Globe Centre New Zealand Costume Competition. This is a huge achievement for Aimee, especially as she is only a Year 10 student and traditionally the finalists have been in Years 12 and 13.

For the brief, students needed to discuss cost and budget, concept design breakdown and how the garment related to the text – A Midsummer Night’s Dream – and where it would be performed, so competition entries demanded a comprehensive understanding of the costume design and concept.

Her costume for the character of Titania was created by a professional costume maker at Toi Whaakari in Wellington.