Music,Dance and Drama - Middle and Senior School
Music Department
Psalm 98 verse 1 and 4
1 Sing to the Lord a new song,
for he has done marvelous things;4 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth,
burst into jubilant song with music;
God has given us the amazing gift of music to be able to communicate and commune with Him. It’s been a delight and pleasure to bring this gift into the classroom, especially with the Year 7 and 8 classes. Over a short rotation of five weeks, Middle School students are exposed to theory beginnings, performance and learning how to compose using music software.
The senior music students have been busy creating and performing, sharing their gifts with the student body at assembly time. Thank you to Caera Lynch, Jordan Omundsen and Asher Shaffett for presenting a group performance, Jacob Mander with one of his solo performances, and Stephen Trent singing his own compositions.
One of the main aims of the Music Department is to nurture and further develop the skills of each individual student.
Currently, there are a number of our musicians who are involved in Worship Bands (student-led), the Jazz Band (run by Mr Mason-Battley) and the Orchestra (Mrs Clayton). Students have also been given the opportunity to enter into this year’s SUSO (Stand Up, Stand Out) competition. Our encouragement goes out to Neil Yuan and Dawn Lim as they prepare for their first audition in September.
Psalm 149:3
Let them praise his name in dance;
strike up the band and make great music!
And why? Because God delights in his people,
festoons plain folk with salvation garlands!
Dance Department
The Dance Department has had a jam-packed year since we returned to school for Term Two. The Dance Festival took place in the final week of Term Two, and the students did a fantastic job of honouring the Lord through their performances. Students in Year 13 are working towards their final submission for choreography and are applying their learning and encouraging each other to grow in the areas of creativity and perseverance.
This term marks the end of Mrs Trebilco’s time in dance here at KingsWay School, and she wishes all the students the best end to 2020; a year that has brought challenges, but throughout, she has seen the dance students stand together and overcome many obstacles in their way.
May our music and dance bring joy to others and to God’s heart as we share and sing of the marvellous things that God has done.
1 Corinthians 10:31
"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."
Drama Department
Students have been consistently exploring how they can communicate ideas and concepts through their dramatic skills, developing their own talents and overcoming obstacles that have come their way this year.
We had a special treat in Term 2; the Year 11 class is currently working on creating their own pieces based on events that ‘put NZ on the map’. For a day-long workshop exploring how we turn an event into drama, we had John Potter come and speak to us. John’s father was on the TE-901 flight that crashed into Mount Erebus in Antarctica in 1979. He shared about his experiences with the media and the country coming together in grief for the 237 who were killed. It was a powerful story which the students were privileged to turn into stories of their own making.
In Drama, we are continuing to study and share concepts which are relevant to the lives the students lead. The Year 12’s are performing The Pohutukawa Tree and exploring how our bi-cultural society looked in the 1950’s. Our Year 13’s doggedly prepare their own Absurdist pieces, exploring the post-modernist question, “How do we find meaning in a world that is meaningless?” With humour, poignancy and insight, all of our KingsWay Drama students have been making the link between our real-life experiences and what we do on the stage, and are producing phenomenal work as a result.