What’s Been Happening In Dance?
Year 7 dancers performing choreography to ‘He Lives In You’ from The Lion King
Year 7 Dance – Artistic dance
During their Year 7 Dance lessons, students have explored various types of dance, including ritualistic, social, and artistic forms. They learned about the diverse elements that make up each form of dance and gained insight into what common movements look like through practical engagement. In Marissa Gangemi’s class, the dancers developed their collaborative skills by contributing to the class choreography of ‘He Lives In You’ from The Lion King. Overall, the girls gained new technical dance skills and had lots of fun polishing their performance.
Year 9 dancers Ainslie, Lili and Alyssa
Year 9 Dance – Exploring female choreographic works
Year 9 dancers have been busy exploring the work of critical female choreographers this term. Each class learned repertoire from professional dance artists Crystal Pite or Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker. The Year 9 dancers have gained a physical understanding and appreciation of style by practically exploring contemporary works. The girls then interpreted this style in their own dance compositions and performed them for assessment. There were some fantastic creative results!
Year 10 Dance – Flamenco
At the start of term, our class had the amazing opportunity to participate in Flamenco dance lessons with Sofia Pratt from Danza Viva. We learned the characteristics of Flamenco dance and culture and gained an understanding of how music greatly influences Flamenco dance. With strong posture, well held-elbows, bent knees, expression, musicality, and long Flamenco ruffle skirts, Year 10 Dance performed a lively dance choreographed by Sofia. This experience taught me to count in a distinctive 12-count rhythm and accent structure. I enjoyed exploring this beautiful technique and developed a new passion for Flamenco dance. Isabella Lu
Year 10 Dance – Responding to Gospel Stories
It was a fun experience working on the Lenten Liturgy event, and there were new skills gained. We had to use our time wisely to create four dances by Week 10 and to create a dance that would be performed in the round. This means it had to look interesting from every direction which was challenging! We incorporated the themes of Jesus grows up, Jesus was thirsty, Jesus was betrayed, and Jesus has risen and our own emotions into the dances. Every member of our class contributed movement, we worked together to choreograph and bring the themes to life. Overall, the performance experience was meaningful and very rewarding. The hard work and time we put in meant we did our very best. Ruby MorrisÂ
Year 11 Approaching ATAR Dance
Year 11 Dance feels like a big step up from Year 10 Dance studies, but my class agrees it has been enjoyable. For our contemporary technique assessment, we performed short exercises that we had learned in class from Murray. Our focus has been on posture, alignment, safe dance practice and using momentum. Everyone helped each other to achieve their best. Overall, the Year 11 assessment process has been interesting whilst challenging, and I am excited for the rest of the year in dance! Myah Waldock
ATAR Dance Excursions
ATAR students have had the opportunity to attend three different dance performances in Term 1, including Manifesto, Tracker and Perspectives. Manifesto and Tracker were part of the Perth International Arts Festival and used various unique design concepts, including lighting, sound and prop.  Tracker demonstrated an indigenous story and used dialogue, natural sound effects and screens to enhance the meaning of the beautiful dance performance. The third show we attended was Perspectives at Perth Concert Hall, which comprised the top Dance, Drama and Music students from the 2022 WACE examinations. We were excited to support Santa Maria graduate Siobhan Scannell who was selected to perform. Attending this event with the ATAR Drama students allowed us to see the level of skill and effort required for top marks in the final practical exams. Chloe Thong
Junior IGSSA Dance auditions
Junior IGSSA Dance Auditions
Last Monday, 70 Years 7 – 9 students auditioned for the Junior IGSSA Dance group. The selected dancers will perform alongside all IGSSA schools in a showcase in August. The dance audition was a valuable learning experience for all students, allowing them to work with a professional external choreographer, Danielle Raffaele.
Despite the challenges that come with rapidly learning new choreography and implementing on-the-spot feedback, the students showed a great sense of positivity and determination. Through these types of performing arts experiences, girls acquire transferrable life skills like resilience and collaboration. Seeing so many students stepping outside their comfort zone and having a go was beautiful!
Dance & Performance Project (DPP)
This co-curricular consists of two companies of students in Years 8 – 12 that learned choreography created by my ATAR Dance classmates and me in a hip-hop or contemporary style. The dancers and choreographers have worked hard over the last eight weeks to develop a performance-level dance that will be brought to the stage later in the year. The most enjoyable takeaway from this experience has been seeing my artistic vision come to life. As a choreographer seeing your dance ideas in front of you and not just visions in your head is fulfilling. All Year 12 ATAR dancers have collaboratively created strong and inspiring dances. Seeing the younger dancers working so hard to achieve our vision has proven very rewarding. J​ess Stewart, Performing Arts Captain 2023
Awesome work, girls! We can’t wait to see what is in store for Dance for the remainder of 2023…
Shayla Wins Class Clowns 2024
Shayla was recently crowned winner of the Class Clowns National Grand Final at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
The Value of Student Voice – Jennifer Oaten
“At Santa Maria College, we are not only given the opportunity, but we are encouraged by our teachers and each other to voice our opinions, concerns and ideas—to continue moving forward as a school and as a community. Student voice is integral for growth, and allows for us, as students to have an active role in shaping our education.”
Shining a Spotlight on Our Student Ministry Team
This week, we shine a light on a dynamic group of students – our Ministry team, who are doing wonderful things in the Faith space.
- Featured
Author: Santa Maria College
Santa Maria College is a vibrant girls school with a growing local presence and reputation. Our Mission is to educate young Mercy women who act with courage and compassion to enrich our world. Santa Maria College is located in Attadale in Western Australia, 16 km from the Perth CBD. We offer a Catholic education for girls in Years 5 – 12 and have 1300 students, including 152 boarders.
