Drama & Dance

Following on from the incredible success for our amazing Showquest crew at regionals announced in the last Newsletter. Their success continued… being awarded Runner Up for Best Choreography in NZ and 4th Overall in NZ, ZM Choice Award. Awesome, well done!

Court Theatre Youth company have been smashing it over the last couple of years with some really interesting performances, and 'the Sweet science of bruising' was no different. Cashmere's own Beth Gibson (Year 12) was super excited about performing at the Court so I hope some of you managed to catch her performance in August.

Huge congratulations to our Cashmere Dancers for the outstanding Results achieved at DanceNZMade Regionals. Lucy Chen and Katie Robertson placed 2nd, Connie Colquhoun and Georgia Stokes both placed 3rd and gained entry into the National Competition.

Connie Colquhoun, Lucy Chen, Sophia Brown, Millie Bradford-Woodland and Lily Dougherty were 5 of 300 dancers to be chosen for NZ Best Dancer! The competition team of Lily Dougherty, Millie Bradford-Woodland, Lydia Chen, Lucy Chen, Katie Robertson, Libby Bush, Sophia Brown, Charlotte Gray, Bella Barrie and Katie Hadfield were 2nd runner up of the overall competition, scoring 95/100 and also qualified for nationals.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest

For the past few months it has been an absolute pleasure to work with a dedicated group of senior Drama students to bring Dale Wasserman's legendary stage adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel, 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' to life. Staging this play has been on my personal bucket list for years, and we were thrilled to be given the green light to put it on as our 2023 Drama production. This is a play that brings with it certain thematic challenges, and for the actors in particular, a huge challenge in the amount of time they are required to be on stage, not to mention the sheer volume of lines to be learned. Suffice to say, the entire cast accepted the challenges involved like seasoned professionals, and dedicated themselves to creating a vibrant, engaging, and energy filled performance that will hopefully have a long lasting impact for all in attendance. For me personally, the opportunity to direct and stage material such as this, that is often deemed to be at a level of sophistication too challenging for a High School setting, is incredibly important in helping to take our Drama programme to the next level, and to give our Drama students the best opportunities to showcase their skills, and burgeoning talent. A huge thanks to my Drama and Dance department colleagues Shaun Edwards-Brown and Issy Randall for all of their support, Neil Jackson and Paul Beer for their work on the set, and to Tom Wilkinson for arranging for the amazing Hamish Coughlan from the Performing Arts technology class to run lighting for the show. Bring on the next one in 2025.

By John Ussher"

NCEA Dance Showcase

On Friday 13th of October we were proud to present the Cashmere High School Dance Showcase for 2023. The showcase is a celebration of passion, dedication and a culmination of countless hours of practice put forth by our young dancers. Across the year students have been studying different types of dance styles as well as creating unique choreography on themselves and others. The work shown is a testament to the versatility and creativity of our students and it has been outstanding to see the range and skills our dancers are developing. At the showcase you will experience a selection of works across all three year groups, put together with a few surprises. It will be the final performance for our Year 13 dancers to showcase their incredible passion and talent before they leave Cashmere High School.

We were really excited to share this work with you.

By Issy Randall

Music

Cashmere students Clara Dujakovich and Liam Dixon competed in the National Brass Band Championships in Dunedin. Liam won best junior Bb Tuba and Clara best junior tenor trombone, what an outstanding achievement, well done both!

Then after competing in the junior champion of champions, Clara took out second place, Congratulations!!

Students had the opportunity to attend a Follow Spot Workshop on the set of That Bloody Woman at the Court theatre. Well done to all those who turned up to take part, and to the awesome tutors who imparted such excellent knowledge! It’s great to see the next generation of lighting enthusiasts coming up through the ranks!

Two 'Best of Hollywood' concerts featuring our choral groups, vocal soloists, duets and a pit band filled the PAC with well known tunes performed with such energy and wonderful talent. Huge thanks to all involved, including the amazing Performing Arts Technology Class for all their work setting up and operating the tech on the night.

Congratulations to “Sandfly” who continue their rockquest success by making the national top 30. This is essentially a national semifinals stage. The quote from the organisers below shows this is no easy feat,

Starting with over 800 acts entered throughout the regional live events, and then over 100 acts submitting videos for the Top 30 selection, these acts are truly remarkable. The talent throughout has been overwhelming, and it speaks volumes about the vibrant music scene in our country.
The level of creativity and artistry displayed in this year's competition has blown us away. Earning a spot in the Top 30 is no easy feat, and every single act that participated deserves a massive round of applause
Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou katoa ki te eke ki runga toru tekau o Smokefreerockquest!

Stage Band performed in the big band section of Jazzquest 2023 taking out a GOLD AWARD! 

Following this awesome result, they were invited to perform at the Canterbury NPC game for guests as they arrived at Orange Theory Stadium. It was a chilly day but the crowd were warmed up with some funky tunes. 

A couple of entertaining quiz nights raised much needed funds towards the Music Tour of Sydney so thank you to all those who attended. The group are now in Sydney performing and with the outstanding talent of these students we look forward to hearing the feedback from what I’m sure will be incredible performances.

Talented musicians; Alex Boot, Clara Dujakovic, Tom Dewar, Tristan Dunlop and Nicolae Didenco are the FIVE Cashmere High students selected for the Christchurch Youth Jazz Orchestra. This is wonderful news, well done to all.

Off to Oz - Was the Pre tour Concert for those off to Sydney and what a wonderful opportunity for the community to experience the talent of these musicians ahead of their journey over the pond. A day to relax, visit the Aquarium and explore Sydney before the performances which began outside the Maritime museum on Darling Harbour waterfront, what a backdrop!

The October Music Finals took place the first week of Term 4 so keep an eye on www.facebook.com/cashmerehighmusic and the school website for photos.

Visual Arts

What a lineup from Cashmere this year for Art Start 2023. The students; Willow Cook, Olive Entwisle, Jack Gormley, Tilly Harris, Jaksyn Hocking, Maria Laurie, Skyler Morison, Laura Phillips, and Holly Waldron represented us well with some stunning works, a number of which sold on the exhibition's opening night. Congratulations to all those students, especially Tilly Harris and Willow Cook whose work featured in the top five, (and the publicity) an incredible achievement with the quality of work selected, and a special well done to WIllow Cook who went on to take out the top Scholarship Award!

It was also wonderful to see one of last year's featured Cashmere students, Joseph Davidson-Labout creating all the Photography for the event and publicity.

Don’t forget you can purchase limited edition prints of these wonderful works from https://artstart.co.nz

In case you missed them on social media, we are proud to present the Artists of the month for this term see the gallery below. 

Speak for the Planet is a competition where Cashmere students have previously had success, so it was very exciting to learn that after a couple of years break, this year's winner was Ngaio Dawson. Well done Ngaio great work and a thought provoking piece!

You may have noticed the Art that adorns the communications boxes around town. This is part of an ongoing beautification initiative. Mel Hillier, Graffiti Projects Coordinator from Christchurch city council visited to tell us about the current iteration of this project ‘‘What’s cool about your school or community’ cabinet project. We had some students attend the meeting and they will work with the Student council to take this project further, so we look forward to having some new Art in the neighbourhood.

Cashmere has been selected to join the Great NZ GeXchange. We have now received the Art Gecko Box and Ngaio Dawson and Lianna Lomibao have been selected to create an artwork on the theme of Awesome Aotearoa in the Artgecko Sketchbook. They have one week to complete one page for the sketchbook, for which they will receive an Art pack, exciting. The gecko box containing the sketchbook will then be sent on to the next selected school.

It is the season for Art Competitions and with that in mind there is an inhouse competition with some great prizes to be won .

Our Art, Design and Photography students are super busy completing their amazing work for folios, and here is a reminder of those VERY IMPORTANT dates…

FOLIO HAND-INS

Level 1 - 18th October

Level 2 - 24th October

Level 3 - 3rd November between 3-4pm

The culmination of all this hard work across all levels, Art, Design and Photography will be available to view at the Folio night on Wednesday 1st November 4.30-8.30pm.

The Arts Faculty at Cashmere is incredibly vibrant and creative, also high achieving and it is an absolutely amazing feat to have taken out not only the regional titles for Rockquest, Jazzquest and Showquest in the same year, but now also to have added the Top scholarship winner at Art Start! Well done to everyone involved.