by Isla Huffadine

Art Liaison Reports

Further 'Art' happenings covered by our Arts Liaisons!

Kapa Haka Liaison: Analee Toro

It's been a busy first term for Ngā Manu o Hira Tapu, St Hilda’s Kapa Haka group. We've had a large number of new students sign up and it's been great to see the girls join seamlessly into our group. A large undertaking, which started at the end of last year, was learning our new School Haka written by Kiringāua Cassidy. A lot of work was put into polishing the Haka which was presented to the school in Assembly along with contributing to the 125th Celebrations welcoming ceremony. We enjoyed the chance to share our hard work with past staff and students. We would like to thank our tutor Lillieana Powell-Shore for all her help as we look forward to another busy term after the holidays.

Image by: Isla Huffadine

Visual Arts Liaison: Frankie Robertson

This term in Visual Art we are at the beginning of our artistic process, which will keep us working towards developing and producing new artworks. We began with loads of ideas before we refine them to find meaning in our own individual concept for the year. We then research this in greater detail, discovering similarities in our art to artist models and learning from them. Using the knowledge gained from artist models, we can explore and experiment in a range of media to produce artworks. Exploration through experimenting is the most important and exciting thing in the classroom.

Hip Hop Liaison: Sophie Wispinski

I am very excited to announce that Hip Hop is starting up in Term 2! Many girls were involved in auditioning this term and crews have since been organised. We have two senior crews, duos and one new initiative which is a mega crew. The mega crew consists of 18 people and can range from Year 7 to 13! It is super exciting to get many girls involved for the hopes to compete at the NZCAF Hip Hop regionals in August, which the girls will be training very hard for. We also have amazing coaches on board who will be working hard to create choreography and teach the crews.

Debating Liaison: Anna Hutchens

St Hilda’s Debating has had a strong start to the year, with 4 teams entered in the senior competition and 2 teams in the junior competition. We also had two teams competing in the recent Otago-Southland Regional Debating Competition held on the 27th-28th of March. The teams consisted of Helena Fitzgerald, Emily Wilson and Zara Geddes, and Lily Knox, Anika Texley, Eliabel Legrand and Anna Hutchens. St Hilda’s 1 narrowly missed out on the semi-finals, but it was still a successful competition and great learning opportunity for both teams. We also had the great news of Helena Fitzgerald being selected for the Gold Squad, and Lily Knox and Zara Geddes being selected for the Regional Development Squad.

Music Liaison: Chai Yoo

Term 1 in Music has been exciting with various events and activities. The Year 11-13’s were able to showcase their talents with their solo performances at John McGlashan College. Students from Year 10 to 13 had the opportunity to work with Jenny Mitchell, a songwriting mentor, to improve their songwriting skills and gain valuable experience. In addition, a couple of Rockquest bands have begun practicing and the Year 7 & 8’s have been forming bands for Bandquest.

Image by: Isla Huffadine

Drama Liaison: Meg Rogers

This past term has been quite a busy one for the Drama department. The senior Drama classes have taken trips to the Dunedin Fringe Festival in late March, and Dunedin Arts Festival in early April. We’ve had students practising their best Shakespeare for the SGCNZ University of Otago Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival, in which two teams entered, one performing a five minute cut of Romeo and Juliet and the other a 15 minute cut of Othello. We’ve also had the Theatre Sports group up and running once again, with alumna Eve Scott leading the group for the second year in a row.

Ngā Korimako Junior Choir Liaison: Megha Senthilkumar

Ngā Korimako was fantastic this term. In the beginning of this term, Mr. Madden, our Choir teacher taught us a Southern Folk song called Charlotte's Town. There were two parts to the music, namely Soprano (high) and Alto (low). Once we practiced the song well, we split into two groups and started singing in harmony. As well as Charlotte's Town, Mr. Madden has also taught us the Skye Boat Song which has been an amazing piece to learn. Ngā Korimako has thoroughly enjoyed learning these new songs, and we would like to thank our Choir teacher Mr. Madden for teaching them to us.

Dance Liaison: Maisie McGregor

Here's what's been going on in Dance this term! A few senior dance students have formed a Dance Committee. They have started an initiative alongside Miss Geary - Friday Lunchtime Dance Workshops. We have had two sessions already and can't wait to get more people involved! Next term we'll be trying out lots of different styles of dance at these workshops and everyone is welcome to join in, even if you have no dancing experience! 

The Senior Dance classes had Matthew and Bene Onarheim-Smith perform some of their original choreography for us, which they performed as part of the Dunedin Fringe Festival - “This Piece Won't Change the World”. Six of our Senior Dance students performed a group contemporary dance in the Arts Assembly on Wednesday 14th April. Senior Dance students had been learning this dance in class as part of their 2.6 and 3.6 choreographic/performance processes portfolio internals.

We then saw a duo, Holly and Poppy, who performed the same dance but with their own modifications. Their task was to vary the sequence to have new meaning. Their dance became about supporting a very sick friend; vastly different from the original choreographic intention. It was really inspiring to see these talented dancers show the school what they have been working on. 

In Year 11 Dance, students have been developing their skills in choreography through creating duets within a tiny space of 2m x 2m. This provided a challenging use of spatial dynamics. Year 11’s have also begun learning about the infamous Fosse Jazz, performing a Fosse style choreography to Frank Sinatra's 'New York New York'. Overall a busy time in the Dance world here at St Hilda's.

Image by: Isla Huffadine

Sings Hilda Liaison: Helena Fitzgerald

Sings Hilda has been keeping busy this term, preparing and performing pieces for the 125th Anniversary Celebrations, as guest performers for the Octagon Ensemble Concert, and for our Music Matinee. We have 20 students in the choir this year and have set rehearsals three times a week. This term we have been learning music in a range of styles and languages for the upcoming regional Big Sing competition in June, an event we’re all excited for as it was cancelled last year during lockdown. We hope to continue improving and growing as a choir leading into next term, and are looking forward to our future performances.