By Mikayla van Loon
In a few weeks time, thousands of school students from across the state are preparing to take to John Cain Arena as the State School Spectacular (SSS) makes a live return after a three year hiatus.
For students from The Basin, Upwey South and Tecoma primary schools, coming together on Friday 5 August at Maroondah Nets for the biggest mass dance rehearsal so far meant the show finally felt real.
Upwey South Grade 6 students Tess and Brigitte have both participated in SSS before but love being able to have fun and do something different from their normal school activities.
“It’s just really energetic and it’s a good feeling because everyone is up, performing which is really fun,” Brigitte said.
“I like it because you get to meet new people,” Tess said.
Excited about seeing how the performance will all come together, Tess and Brigitte are looking forward to taking their dancing skills to the big stage.
“I’m excited to see all the performances and the big crowd and the choir and all the elements put together,” Tess said.
“It makes the show feel way more real when you’re there and you get to see the performers on the big stage and the choir behind you,” Brigitte added.
Performing arts teacher at Upwey South, Penelope Lang, said embracing the arts is such an important part of the school community and SSS is a great opportunity for students to be involved in such a large production and to work with professionals.
“It’s wonderful for them to see a performance of this scale come together. So when we go to the arena, they’ll see all the lights and cameras and this is the only thing that they get exposure to that huge scale production, which is amazing.
“It’s also about teamwork. It’s about understanding that things just don’t happen. We worked for so many months to get to this. So it’s that idea of working towards something bigger.”
This year is also the biggest cohort of boys getting involved either with mass dance or mass choir from Upwey South, something Penelope was very pleased to see.
Grade 6 students Dylan, Mataya and Lauren from The Basin Primary School all decided to audition for SSS this year as it was their final opportunity to do so, having missed out last year.
“I like dancing and I just found it was a way of relaxing. My brother and sister are doing it as well,” Dylan said.
“It was definitely the thought of having just like a big group of people together and I thought it’d be pretty exciting,” Mataya said.
Having been to John Cain Arena before, Lauren said she didn’t find performing in the big arena daunting or scary but rather thrilling.
Able to rehearse with other schools on Friday, Dylan said it was great to see the progress being made, even if it wasn’t everyone.
“It’s interesting to just see how many people there are and this isn’t even all the people, it’s only like a quarter,” Mataya added.
The Basin’s performing arts teacher Colin Hartley said he had 46 children audition late last year but unfortunately only 16 can actually perform.
“I always say that you don’t have to be an amazing dancer, you just have to be able to have fun, enjoy it and move on to the music,” he said.
“So as long as you can do that, you can come and audition. I’m not going to take the 16 best dancers that we have. I’m going to take the 16 kids that are there for the right reasons.
“It’s such a great opportunity for all kids to have a go and try something new. There’s no expectation on ability or anything like that. It’s just really about providing kids with a safe, fun environment and getting them to experience something they may not get to experience again in life.”
Tecoma Primary School team leader Deb Langford said of the 15 students she has participating, some like to dance, others like to play sport but it is a great opportunity for everyone to be part of.
SSS assistant dance director Hara Papoulias has been involved in Spectacular for eight years now but this year she has noticed just how interested each of the students are in the whole process.
“Maybe it’s because they’ve been through the hardest years of their life but I’ve found that they’re absorbing more information and asking really smart questions,” she said.
“Asking things about costume changes, about where they’re standing, that they wouldn’t normally ask.”
Seeing it all come together, having started the process in November last year, Hara said is one of the best parts about being involved in SSS, particularly when the light bulb moment comes on in the kids.
“I don’t know what the word is that could describe the emotion that comes over me when I see them getting it. Most of these kids don’t get these types of experiences very often. Some of the schools that come from regional towns, they’ve never come to the city,” she said.
“So this opportunity and experience is a big deal. And for me, I get a lot of joy out of knowing I’ve been a part of that memory for them.”
The State Schools Spectacular has two shows on Saturday 10 September at 1pm and 6:30pm at John Cain Arena. Tickets can be found here, www.ticketek.com.au/spectacular
