Term 1 2015

Time really flies by so quickly, and with that, another term comes to an end.

Last year we farewelled Ms Lewis from the Dance Department, and this year we welcomed Ms Melchior into the whanau as her replacement.  So Dance has been ahum with changes and new directions for the last few months.

We started the year with a bang, being involved in the Greytown Arts Festival.  Nicki-Marie Campbell and Nicky Carlisle used their Circus skills to busk in the town centre, the musicians opened for "Tunes of I" and the Drama Department put on a 25 minute Flash-mob Shakespeare performance in the park, a combination of love scenes from 5 Shakespearean plays.

Keziah Stonnell as the Fool

The Cast of "Loves Labours Won"

Connor Fenwick and Nicki-Marie Campbell from "Taming of the Shrew"

Connor Taumoepeau as the Duke from "Twelfth Night"

Amber Spicer and Thor Elley as "Anthony and Cleopatra"

Then we were straight into the Sheillah Winn Festival of Shakespeare in Schools.  We rehearsed and performed "Henry VI, Pt 1", the Joan of Arc story from Shakespeare.  Though this was unplaced, we did win the 5 minute section with "Richard III" so we will be off to the national competition in June with Egan Tearle and Zoe Thurston performing.

The cast of "Henry VI, pt 1" led by Natalie Bennett as Joan of Arc

Term 2 brings more action with the Production getting underway, which will hopefully be "South Pacific"... we are just waiting on the rehearsal scripts.  Rockquest will again be a big thing, and the Music classes are getting their bands sorted.  In a few weeks we will be having the Junior Show Offs event which will showcase the skill in the Junior school.

"High School Magical"

I know... another post beginning with how busy we have been!  But... it is so true!

Anyway, in the middle of all the rest of everything else that is going on.... we have one last night on stage with "High School Magical" and we are getting rave reviews from the crowd!

The show starts at 7:00pm in the auditorium, doors open at 6:30 and there is even a coffee cart and eftpos! 

The show stars Zoe Renor as Cinderella, and Civic Cruz as Harry Prince.  As they try to negotiate through High School, magical forces keep them apart.  The Villian is played by Marlon Moala-Knox who is intent on stopping Cinderella from getting together with Harry.  Camille Healy is the Fairy Godmother who works to keep them together.

The main characters are supported by a bevy of interesting characters, from the flirtacious Step Mother (Gianna Pohl) and her pool boy Reynaldo (Mitchell Harman), to the ugly step sisters, the popular Britney (Sarah Philip), the nerdy Gertrude (Izabelle Brown) and the vampire Bella (Alessandra Giorgioni). 

Some of the more interesting characters enrolled in High School Magical include the less-than-brilliant Bruce the Jock (Finn Shepherd), the moves-like-Jagger Smooth Stu (Travis Brown), the beautiful soulful voice of Skux Simon (Oliver Healy), the hog-tying antics of Cowboy Chet (Dan Carlisle) and of course, a vegetarian zombie (Nick Smith).  While trying to fit in with the Cool Chicks (Kate Philip, Natalia Austin, Moana Braithwaite and Giorgia Giorgioni), Cinderella ends up as the butt of all the jokes in school.

The show is hilarious if I do say so myself.  If the antics aren't enough, the Pantomime horse (Joel Charters and Joe Garratt) and the 4 cupids help to take the humour to a whole new level.

If you are free, and have $5 burning in your pocket, come along for an amazing night of music, laughter, entertainment and short-shorts.

The poster, designed by Civic Cruz

Finn Shepherd, Travis Brown and Oliver Healy

The Cool Chicks: Kate Philip, Natalia Austin, Moana Braithwaite and Giorgia Giorgioni

The Step Sisters: Sarah Philip, Izabelle Brown, Alessandra Giorgioni

Sugarlumps and Bruce: Joel Charters and Finn Shepherd

A couple of Cupids: Oliver Healy and Mitchell Harman

Marlon Moala-Knox and Camille Healy

Finn as Bruce with Civic Cruz as Harry Prince

Walter Barber recites for the Nerds

Bruce gets a prom date - Sarah Philip and Finn Shepherd

Oliver Healy singing... afterall, he is in the band with No Direction

Gianna Pohl waits for her Pool Boy, Reynaldo

Rocking out at Rockquest 2012

Ms Webster, Cody Field and Jason Ireland have been working tirelessly with the Kuranui bands to get them ready for Rockquest, and it was an epic night.

We entered 3 and a half bands.... as Sciatica was made up of 4 band members, 2 of which came from Kuranui.  Korona joined Sciatica, along with Rockquest veterans Borderline Frequency and Amplifted.  As a school we were privileged to hear the bands play before the competition, and they were epic.

On the night, our bands performed particularly well, getting a great deal of support from the crowd.  Korona, our Junior Band, won the People's Choice Award, which was a big win considering the number of entries and the high calibre of the competitors, so well done to all the bands, especially to Korona members Bethany Patten, Joe Garratt, Daniel Aburn and Sarne McGillicutty.

Bethany Patten singing with Korona

Korona members from left:  Sarne, Daniel, Bethany and Joe

Luther McCullough, front man and guitar for "Sciatica"

"Tunes of I"

   $20,000 worth of Gear 

+ 24 Hours studio time 

+ Flights/Accomodation 

+ A years supply of Red Bull 

+ Facebook

+ You

= A massive opportunity for our ex-students.

Conway Jeune, musician extraordinaire, and his band, "Tunes of I" are in with a magnificent shot at a huge prize including band gear, studio time, and the opportunity for a choice national tour.  They need votes on Facebook.  If you have a Facebook account, please go and 'Like' the following link, then vote 'Tunes of I'.  You can vote once per day.

Please vote and share the link, as Conway, as all our ex-students, would totally make the most of this opportunity.

 

And there is a bonus.... you could win $500 just for voting.  What's not to lose?

VOTE HERE

Wordless Wednesday: Strumming the ol' Six String

And here we go again....

Phew!  With another term rolling around to the close, an update seems LONG overdue!

It has just been CRAZY.

Chaedyn Dukes and Zoe Renor performing a scene from "Romeo and Juliet"

Drama have completed their first assessment performances, just last week.  All senior Drama students participated in a performance evening, performing their student directed Shakespearean scenes.  It was magical.  We saw boys eating pies, girls dancing as fairies, girls with swords, boys with swords, girls in love, boys in love, a teenage runaway and an army soldier carrying firewood.  Nothing less than you'd expect.

Next week the Dance and Drama seniors will have a performance evening, which will be amazing I am sure.

Stage Challenge is up and running again.  Ariane and Kieran and doing so well with the choreography and rehearsals.  Mr Ryan is fundraising the required $5,000 to get our show on the road.  Oliver has the set well underway.  Ms de Croy has kept up with all the paperwork and online forms.... and I have flapped about the place mumbling things to myself.  All in all, a team effort?

The Visual Artists are excited as the first official looking drawings of the new Art Suite are up and about.  All majorly interesting.  We will have 2 new Art rooms and 2 digital spaces.  And all this will be near the Performing Arts department!  Finally we will all be together.

Ms Beecroft has been working with the Yr 9 Drama class on poi this year, and their skills are through the roof.  Tomorrow she will demonstrate fire-poi which is very exciting.

But, for now, it is time to log out and hopefully log back in soon for a proper update on all these things.

Playing with Fire

As part of the Level 2 Dance curriculum, students have to perform an Ethnic or Social dance.  This year has seen a huge number of performance options.  We have had Chinese Sword Dancing, the Highland Fling, Rarotongan Dance and now Samoan Fire Dancing.

Anthony Fa'afoi and Daniel Carlisle both completed this Dance assessment in front of the main offices, with Oliver Healy on the fire extinguisher.  Travis Brown and Dominic Hawke completed a musical performance on the Congas during the performance.  It was a terrific way for 3 subject areas to work together to a students strengths in performance.  The performance counted as part of assessments for Dance, Performing Arts and Music, which was terrific.

Wordless Wednesday: Summertime in Music

Scribe!

Carrying on with the run of cool people who have been to Kuranui, Scribe came last week.  Not only did he speak with the assembly about aspiration and following your dreams, despite challenges from home, from life and from your teachers.  He was highly inspirational, and a great speaker.  He also performed his latest rap, written for the Rugby World Cup, "All Black Everything".

Following the assembly, a group of students were invited to lunch with Scribe in Masterton.  He was particularly taken with the Kuranui students, as they had the confidence to speak with him, one on one.  Travis Brown lead the group of students, accompanied by Ms. Rutherford.

And it's all been remarkably busy again....

While a theme of this blog has become, "Being too busy to blog", we would love to change it all.

There are photos to follow, which are waiting on a set of genius's's's to recover from a memory card that insisted on dying at the worst-possible-moment.  These include some of the magnificent things we have had a chance to do recently.

At the end of last term, the Year 12 Drama class put on their performance of "Mother Courage and her Children".  While the Epic theatre form is a complete departure from what our students were used to, it was ultimately quite successful.  Mother Courage was played by Dominic Hawke, which was a supreme surprise to us all during the audition phase.  He was a beautiful Mother Courage.  Zoe Renor performed admirably as the mute Kattrin, and Chaedyn Dukes was a stand-out performer as Yvette.  Oliver Healy was particularly proud of his sign, which was particularly nice.

Dom Hawke as Mother Courage

Our Ukulele Orchestra had the chance to perform on TV as part of the Rugby World Cup Roadshow.  And the senior Performing Arts class worked on providing facepaint for the crowd.  It was a lot of fun, as well as taking random Unicyclers, which became the focus for many a photo.  The best aprt was looking like the ultimate "Where's Wally" comic!

Supporting Georgia

The auditions for the school production went ahead, with 38 people auditioning for the 8 key roles!  Ms Webster is currently adding roles to her original production.

Term 3 brought in the Education Review Office, and the Year 13 performance of "Once on Chunuk Bair".  James Owens was born to play the role of Frank, and Darren Dingle did a fantastic job of playing Colloney.  Katie James once again was relegated to a character who dies, this time in the first 2 minutes, then re-appearing as Otaki George.

The Senior Dance classes are gearing up for "Dance New Zealand Made" later this term, and the routines are looking amazing.  Ms de Croy will now be hunkering down beneath a pile of costumes.  Jamie Howatson is once again choreographing a routine with a dedicated bunch of dancers, assisted by Danielle Kennedy.

Theatresports has suffered a delay, mostly due to snow, but it looks positive for the intercollegiate event for Year 11's tonight.  We have 4 Year 11 teams this year, though with the weather, this may drop to 2 teams in the competition tonight.  We have to defend our title tomorrow night in the Senior Open grade competition.

The Rockquest again went well, with 2 bands competiting.  The Intermediate band did well, and the Junior band was a stand-out.  We have a great deal of talent in the Junior College. This year we were unplaced, but had some of the youngest competitors in the division.

Wearable Arts is on Friday night, which is held at Kuranui this year.  There are a number of entries from all the schools, which is a delight to see.  The Dancers and Circus troupe have been working on entertainments for in the background, and are quite excited about the event.

Watch this space for theatresports results, and to see how Katie James goes at the National Shakespeare in Schools Production in the school holidays.  Also, a big hello to Pakuranga College in Auckland, who could become the next big excitement for Senior Drama at Kuranui!

Junior Arts Classes

With the Junior Arts classes due to finish their current rotation, it seems timely to update the blog with a Junior Show Off's update.

The Year 9 Dancers were really awesome, getting down with Justin Beiber.  The Year 10's danced and even did a cheerleading routine which was new.  Ms de Croy has made her mark in the Dance department, and we are glad to have her.  In other news, Ms Pratt came in the other day and is looking totally amazing, and Eloise is incredibly cute.

The Year 9 Drama class performed their Circus routines, which were clever and highly skilled.  Brad Dingle and Joe Garratt were stars with their comic routine with juggling and a unicycle.  Mereana Hunt and Hannah Dare were the stand-outs with their plate spinning routine which had everyone amazed.  And Murphy Cater and Rama Tapp have come such a long way with their diabolo work this term.  I was proud of each of them.

The Musicians never fail to amaze.  This year the junior band played 2 of their original songs, which were phenomenal.  Marlon Moala Knox was a surprise stand-out on piano accordion.  And seeing the students who have just learnt to play an instrument get up and perform is heart-warming to see.

It was a great night all round.  We have a stack of multi-talented students in our junior school.

Junior Musicians in rehearsal

Toyah Churton prepares to go on stage

The Inaugural Concert on the new Piano

The inaugural concert for the new piano is coming up soon.  Monday 11 April this year, we will be holding a variety concert including Dance, Drama and Music, to show off and thank the donors of the funds for the new piano.

An upright grand piano was purchased recently, with funds given from the Wairarapa Choral Society.  The funding was gifted to help the growing choir at the school.  We chose to purchase a performance piano to accompany our vocalists.

The concert will include invited dignitaries, members of the Symphony Orchestra playing, and all donations given to the Stage Challenge crew of 2011.  The show will be fantastic, and all should move heaven and earth to attend.

Rehearsal Schedule

Now that the year is well underway, the week is filling with rehearsals occupying our students.  Lunchtime rehearsals are important.  Bring your lunch as most rehearsals begin at 1:20pm.

Mondays - Shakespeare
Othello rehearsals in the auditorium

Tuesdays - Glee Club
Glee rehearsals in the Music Room

Wednesdays - Stage Challenge
Jamie's group in the Dance Studio

Thursdays - Stage Challenge
Charlotte's group in the Dance Studio

Fridays - Shakespeare
Othello rehearsal in the auditorium

Soon we will be adding a schedule for Theatresports and Circus. 

School is rolling along....

Phew!  It is Week 3 already!  Crazy...

We are underway with the year, and things are progressing nicely.


Stage Challenge

The Year 13 girls are working on Stage Challenge at the moment.  They have a terrific concept, and will be choreographing the dance sequences to their chosen music at the moment.  They are currently taking names for people wanting to be in the chorus as dancers.  Later they will be asking for backstage and lighting crew.


Shakespeare

We are working on our 15 minute Othello scene, and will be calling for extras shortly.  The competition is in April, and we will be performing in March at Kuranui.  The Senior Drama students are all competing to represent Kuranui at the Regional competition, so Shakespeare is the main focus in Drama at the moment.

Circus Troupe

We are also off on our camp at the National Juggling Championships on Thursday.  We will be heading out to Fairfield Primary School and teaching a workshop there as well.  On Saturday, we are running a public workshop teaching beginner juggling skills.  It should be fantastic.  Watch this space for updates.

Bands

The Senior Rockquest boys are seeking a vocalist for their band.  See Dom, Jack, James or Tom for details.  Ms Webster has also be auditioning for a junior band.  She hopes to put a Jazz band together this year as well.


Glee Club

We had over 35 people audition for Glee last week, and the first rehearsal is today at lunch.  They look to be amazing.  We have some very talented students in the school.  It is not too late to sign up for Glee..... in fact, over 50 showed up for the first rehearsal today!

Murals

The Visual Art students are working hard to complete the murals for the Turf area, which should be set up in the coming week.

There will be a lot more coming up, so keep an eye on the school notices or in Korero for details.... or on this blog of course.

"Artificial Sun" and "I am Giant"

"I Am Giant" are starting to announce the bands chosen to open for them.  I would like to implore ALL readers of this blog to get over to their facebook page, like it, and vote "Artificial Sun for Tauranga".  Just copy and paste that line onto their wall.

Pleasey pleasey.

It would be a fantastic opportunity for the boys.  If they get the gig, we will organise a last-minute road trip!

"I Am Giant" on Facebook

"I am Giant" and "Artificial Sun"

The band "I am Giant" is currently searching for an opening act.

Our boys from "Artificial Sun" are keenly pursuing the gig.  Personally, I think they would rock the party, the boat, and your socks off. 

The campaign is being run through Facebook.

Please follow the link below and leave a message voting for "Artificial Sun".

Vote "Artificial Sun" to open for "I am Giant".

Scholarship in 2011

In the Arts Department, we have had success in the past in Scholarship assessments.  This year we were thrilled to have both Barney and Christina attempt the Scholarship Drama examination performance.  And there is good news for next year as well.

In 2011, Dance and Samoan join the ranks of subjects with Scholarship examinations.

When paying your exam fees, you get 3 Scholarship exams in the package for free.  I recommend that everyone take at least 1 Scholarship class, because it is a good experience, improves your skills, and costs you nothing.  Scholarship awards are given out in amounts from $500 to $6,000.

The subjects offered in the Arts at Kuranui where you can attempt Scholarship in 2011 are:

• Art History
• Dance
• Drama
• French
• Music 
• Te Reo Maori
• Visual Arts – Design
• Visual Arts – Painting
• Visual Arts – Printmaking
• Visual Arts – Photography
• Visual Arts – Sculpture

The best part about Arts Scholarship examinations is that the exams are prepared.  In Dance and Drama, there will be a performance of your choice.  The Visual Arts include portfolios prepared as part of a course of study over the year.

Whatever you chose, think seriously about taking a Scholarship subject or two.... the advantages far outweigh the difficulties.

Cultural Awards Winners 2010

Waimarama and Barney did a fantastic job hosting the Cultural Awards last night.  They kept the audience entertained, and caused more than a few tears with their special awards. 

The whole event took AGES to set up.  Salvatore and Daniel Cameron worked hard setting up the auditorium, Christina alphabetised and checked the certificates, Mary and Ms. Thomson sorted out the supper, and Joshy set up the lighting and sound systems, and the band boys set up the muso section.  The afternoon was filled with costumes being re-set, make-up going on, and the glittery gowns coming out.

The evening started with Wai and Barney giving their welcoming speeches and review of the year.  Then the Yr 9 dancers showed their stuff with their "Evolution of Dance" routine.  Dan Carlisle showed his talent with a cirque routine including juggling knives.  "The Collision" performed "Another Brick in the Wall" and Zoe Renor sang "Memory" from Cats.  The Senior Dancers did their "Fame" routine, Katie and Wai pulled out the 5 minute scene from "Romeo and Juliet" and Finn, Adam and Aaron renewed their scene from "The Wizard of Oz".  Thomas Uatuku performed "Nothing else matters" on guitar, wowing the crowd again with his talent.  The theatresports boys did a fantastic rendition of Louis Gray, performing "Survivor", thanks to Darren, Arjun, Daniel and Dominic.  The final act of the night was "Artificial Sun" performing "Sunrise" and "Comedown" - brilliant talent shown by Jack, Tom, Barney and Louis.

We were thrilled to have so many Blue award winners this year, especially from those students who gained Blues in 2 areas.  We have such a great year to look forward to in 2011, given the talent in the junior school, as well as our top performers.

The big awards were a shock to the winners (but not to their fans) and were as follows:

• Greatest contribution to Dance - Zemira Hayvice
• Greatest contribution to Visual Arts - Samuel Pepper
• Greatest contribution to Music - Barney Johnson
• Greatest contribution to Drama - Waimarama Phillips

 Congratulations to all the evenings winners, and know that the school is incredibly proud of you all.  It was wonderful to see the diversity of talent in the school, and it was a wonderful position to be in to have so many great acts perform.

Sam Pepper - Visual Arts

Waimarama Phillips - Drama

Zemira Hayvice - Dance

Barney Johnson - Music

Another busy week in the Arts Department

Phew!  Sometimes it feels like we are the Physical Education department with all the running around we do.... It has been a long and busy and productive week at Kuranui College.

Visual Art and Photography students are hard at work on their portfolios.  Some of the Art students are involved in building the set for the production, which has been taking place in the Art room and in the Auditorium.

Drama students are furiously finishing assessments and learning lines for the production next term.  With 3 rehearsals a week, it is a tough ask for anyone, but the show is looking good at this point.  The regional champion Theatresports boys (with a hand from Arjun) performed in assembly to their largest crowd yet, getting laughs from all sides again.  Thanks Dom, Louis and Barns for that.  Then on Friday, Dorothy's house on wheels arrived in it's full glory in the Auditorium.

Dance students have had a tough ask as well, with the Dance NZ Made competition on Wednesday, followed by the Dance Showcase on Thursday night.  Talk about busy times!  I take my hat off to Ms Pratt who was spectacular and kept the girls all focussed and looking fantastic for 2 shows in a row. 

Year 11 Music students had their assessment performance on Thursday evening in the Music room.  Congratulations to Finn Harmon who received an excellence for his performance.  "Artificial Sun" performed in the assembly on Thursday as well, doing a great job with 2 of their original songs.

"Artificial Sun" performing in Assembly

But busy is the theme of the Arts department, and we are keeping on keeping on.... :D

Arts and Politics

Well, with the BOT Student Rep nominations and elections beginning tomorrow, the Arts are well supported by our 3 nominees.

Zoe Renor is Year 11- and takes Music, Dance and Drama.  She has a role in the production, plays ukulele, sings, dances, and is off to Dance NZ Made tomorrow.

Emily Jamieson is a Year 10 taking senior classes.  She also plays the violin, guitar and piano.  Last year she was Cleopatra in the Shakespearean production.

Aodhan Stonnell is a Year 9 student, and a strong Drama enthusiast.  He directed Louis and Barney in "MacBeth" earlier this year, and has a key role in this year's production.

All 3 are responsible, intelligent and darn great people.  No matter who wins, we will be proud.

Mr Shepherd, Mr Hall, Emily, Aodhan and Zoe preparing to deliver their speeches.

Dance NZ Made is tomorrow, and all going well, Ms Pratt and her talented dancers, along with parent helpers and myself, will be travelling in the wee small hours up to Palmerston North to enjoy the workshops, the city, and the competition.  Good luck to all the dancers!  And watch this space for results.