On Tuesday 24th October, the Columba community gathered to celebrate the extraordinary talents and Arts achievements of our ākonga

Whanau and kaimahi were treated to a varied and polished line-up of performers at the Arts Showcase and Awards on Tuesday evening. The list of prizewinners is attached here. We are fortunate to have a wonderful student photographer team and many thanks go to Caitlin, Tegen, and Emily for their hard work in capturing so many wonderful moments. Principal Nicol joined us for the evening and presented a rousing speech complete with audience participation.

Many thanks go to our wonderful Arts Prefects, Brie and Juliette, for being such wonderful emcees and ensuring everything ran smoothly. These two Y13 leaders worked hard in the weeks leading up to the event and were an invaluable help during the rehearsals and preparations. We had all been looking forward to seeing Brie reprise her role as Rosie and play against Harper Milne (John McGlashan College) in a rendition of 'Take a Chance on Me', from the musical Mamma Mia!. Unfortunately, Brie had pretty much lost her voice and we were just grateful she could push on through to fulfill her Arts Prefect role! 

The Kapa Haka rupā, led by Tikaka Prefect, Elloise, and mentored by Matua Price and Whaea Andrew, opened and closed the performances with beautiful waiata and a stirring haka. Of particular note this year was Amber's mastery of the guzheng, and fantastic dancing from Kate (Y11), Yulia (Y10), Zara (Y12), Elloise (Y13), and the MPIRE crew. Two of our dancers (Zara and Jeila) are actually NZ representatives and are competing and achieving at the highest amateur level. The talents demonstrated in the performing arts by Grace (Y12) and Imogen (Y11), performing numbers including acting, dancing, and singing, were as extraordinary as ever - it's easy to imagine either of these two going on to have an illustrious career on stage! The reprisal of 'Super Trouper' from Monet (Y12), Alice (Y12), and Brie (Y13) was wonderful and managed to get the audience on their feet dancing and singing along. 

We were also treated to four prizewinning and thought-provoking speeches from four incredibly poised and intelligent young women: Zoe (Y13), Tessa (Y12), Sophia (Y11), and Lula (Y10). Interestingly, the fear of public speaking (glossophobia) is ranked as the world's number one phobia and is believed to affect about 75% of people across the globe. To see rangatahi deliver speeches with such confidence is truly inspiring and commendable! Further to the speeches, we were honoured to have three student poets, Grace (Y12), Tegen (Y11), and Emily (Y10) present their original work. Given the very personal nature of poetry, reading one's own work to a live audience is both terrifying and deeply rewarding. I doubt many of us would be courageous enough to put ourselves 'out there' the way these three young women did! 

In terms of original composition, Eris (Zoe, Emily, Aoife, and Uma) played one of their original songs and later received the prestigious Beethoven bust for composition. This is a band worth keeping an eye on - they are in the midst of recording their first professional track and are destined for great things!

We were thrilled to be able to acknowledge three NZ Arts representatives this year: Grace, Zara and Jeila. For a school of our size, it's a feat to have even one NZ Arts Rep, to have three is incredible! Well done to all three of them - we wish them all the best in their future arts endeavours. The awarding of the Arts Blues was, of course, the highlight of the evening and the College is proud of each of the 21 recipients because we all know how much dedication in needed to reach such a high level of achievemnt in the Artrs. 

Many thanks to Mrs Liana Johnston for always being there to support us, the student Arts Committee for all their hard work and also to Mrs Casbolt (Music), Ms Bercinskas (Drama), Ms Montgomerie (English), and Ms Andrew (Art) for their unfailing support of the Arts at Columba College. We are very grateful for all the energy and extra hours you give to our ākonga - your passion for and commitment to the arts is an inspiration to us all.