Arts

Music News

Nexus Beats Xtra

Bands and artists who played at the Nexus Beats VIII event recently have been playing again during MADD week. A special stage was set up in the Canteen on Level 5 for the talented musicians, who played two sets of songs during lunchtime.

Tuesday lunchtime featured bands and a DJ from Year 8, Wednesday was the turn for the Year 9 bands, and finally on Friday, the Year 10 and Yr12 bands took to the stage.

Congratulations to all the bands and musicians who took part - well done for your commitment and creativity, for your confidence - you once again put on a great show!

Year 7 Sing Up! Competition

This term our Year 7’s have been embracing the restrictions lifting and being able to sing again with their MYP ‘Sing Up’ unit led by Mr Fordham.

In class the learners have been learning about how to train their voice, what it means to sing in a choir and develop performance skills. They have had lots of fun singing well known popular songs and each class chose a song to perform. The house competition was a fun celebratory event and there were special guests casting their votes as judges. These were Mr Duncan, Ms Sarah and Ms Cherry, and Year 12 learner, Danny Sanghera.

Each homeroom chose a song to sing, choosing soloists for some parts of the song, and choreographed the dance and actions. In the end it was a very tough decision to be made, and the standard was generally very high. Congratulations to 7Y who won the day with their version of 'Bad Habits', just beating 7W into second place with their song 'Heat Waves'.

All the learners in Year 7 should feel very proud of putting on a great show which was very much enjoyed by all. It showed your commitment and endurance, your team work and performance skills. Well done!

Drama News

The IB Theatre learners recently performed their collaborative project to a very select invited audience. This performance was a piece of original theatre that they created, inspired by the work of surrealist theatre practitioner Antonin Artaud, who was famous for this 'Theatre of Cruelty' style; and Jerzy Growtowski, a practitioner well known for his view that theatre is essentially the relationship between actor and spectator. Their piece evolved around the themes of love, and death and the idea that the audience should not be just passive spectators but that their senses should be 'woken up'.

One audience member commented: You definitely succeeded in breaking down the barriers between performers and the audience and assaulting our senses through many different mediums - I got a good splattering of blood across my face! another audience member mentioned: Your performance really showed that you don't need words to express emotion - the emotion, trauma and distress in your performance were brilliantly conveyed through sound, effects and gestures. Well done!

The IB course allows our learners to explore the different processes involved in making theatre from the perspective of creator, director, designer and performer. They must work together, practically examining and developing ideas from an agreed starting point in order to generate material. The workshops are entirely learner led, they then write a 15 page process portfolio outlining their process, intentions and impact; reflecting on their individual contribution and skills.

This has been a three month long process, and the end result was electrifying! Excellent work Y12!

To find out more about IB theatre, please approach Ms Kim