Junior Performing Arts

Junior Dance

Junior Dance

What a BIG year!

The Boys in Groove (BIG) Trinity Junior School dance group can be once again proud of having completed another fun and stimulating year! 150 boys were auditioned and 47 were chosen. I was one of those lucky boys! Even though most of the boys couldn’t do handstands or cartwheels or many other types of break dance moves, Ms Bott chose boys for their sense of rhythm, enthusiasm and creativity. It is certainly a challenging task for her to put the boys together and choreograph an original and complicated dance but it always seems to come together on the night of the performance. The theme for this year’s BIG ensemble was An exploration of the kinaesthetic nature of a motor. Ms Bott thought that the repetition and mechanical movements of a motor, such as rotation, up and down actions and vibration would work beautifully in creative dance. And so would the pathways and systems often found in production lines. Brrmmm! Like every major dance production, we had a great range of props to work with. Two remote control cars whizzed around the stage at the start of the performance! We used red laced shoes to create a figure 8 outline suggesting a race track. The ‘Human Machine’ came alive with groups moving in time like bicycles whilst other boys used sticks and slinkies in a repetitive, mechanical fashion. The colours and designs looked amazing as forty seven boys danced in silver overalls and red T-shirts with faces painted. I don’t know how Ms Bott is able to get nearly fifty boys to perform so well together! And so to our first performance, BIG – Work in Progress, which was held at the Trinity Middle School Music Night in front of an eager crowd of parents and friends. They thought it was fantastic and we had a heap of fun! On 9 August, we were ready for our biggest performance of the year at the Catholic Performing Arts Festival in the Burswood Theatre. The boys got to school for an 8:00am dress rehearsal, then attended school for the day and performed in the evening.

Now that’s what I call a BIG day! Our performance of Motor drew massive applause from the large crowd and we even got an Honourable Mention! I was so excited I found it hard to get to sleep that night. On 14 November, BIG performed at the ACHPER Festival held at the Octagon Theatre in the grounds of The University of Western Australia. Even though we hadn’t performed very much since the Catholic Performing Arts Festival (CPAF), I reckon we did pretty Ms Ruth Bott well! Performing Arts Coordinator During the break following the CPAF, Ms Bott gave sixty other boys a chance to work on their own choreography. These boys, known as BIG 2, selected their own music and created routines in groups. Each dance was performed at the very entertaining ‘BIG2 Choreographic Afternoon’ on 15 November. Our final performance for the year was at the annual Junior School Concert and Presentation Evening on 4 December. Once again we were spectacular, with forty seven boys managing to dance on a stage half the size of Burswood, for which our dance was devised. Of course BIG couldn’t perform without all the help from our generous parents and teachers. There are many parents to thank, in particular Carolyn Orr, Tracey Pope, Sandra Ryan and Vienna Winton for their help in creating the costumes. Finally, on behalf of the boys I would like to say a BIG thank you to Ms Bott for bringing such creative and stimulating dance to the Performing Arts at Trinity Junior School. Even though I’ll be moving into Year 8 next year, I can’t wait to see the next, fantastic performance that Ms Bott has planned for the lucky Boys in Groove!

Andrea Rispoli

7 Blue