Dance brings
Dance is not for the fainthearted at Tawa College. The college’s dance studio, completed in January, hosts 22 timetabled classes and is occupied every morning, during breaks and after school with rehearsals.
This week people can see students’ work in Mosaic: An Evening of Dance.
Student Sophie Greig said choreographing a dance wasn’t as easy as it looked.
‘‘It’s been stressful, but I liked the process of casting the dancers, creating the concept, and developing the choreography and lighting, costumes, props and set,’’ she said.
Her dance is based on the Banksy artwork No Ball Games, about a sign telling children not to play.
‘‘The sign is intended to stop the children’s creativity, but it only encourages them,’’ she said.
The dance features two groups of dancers.
‘‘The adults are the ones who don’t know how to be creative. They’ve grown up to become dull and colourless. The other smaller group are children and they’re still creative and colourful. They’re still themselves. There’s a lot of partnering work and aggression between them.’’
Dance was one of the highlights of attending Tawa College, student Ashley Darbyshire said.
‘‘ It’s not like English or maths,’’ she said. ‘‘You’re able to express yourself through movement and explore other cultures through learning Bollywood and other styles [like] musical theatre, hip hop, jazz and contemporary.’’
The show is a selection of student-choreographed work and class dances in various genres.
All 100 students will take part in the final dance, XO by Beyonce.
Mosaic: An Evening of Dance, Tawa College Hall, June 25 to 27, 6pm, koha.