This year I was given the amazing opportunity of being cast as the lead Odette in Swan Lake.
In my dance school end-of-year production this was an amazing opportunity to push myself to the limits and learn about what it would be like to be a principal in a company. I shared this lead with my friend Alex who danced the matinee performance. This was an amazing opportunity to learn and perform some of the famous repertoires from this classical ballet. This opportunity helped me to expand my artistry and dance and performance skills as well as teamwork with Alex splitting the rehersal time and working together to support each other and give each other corrections and motivation. This experience was a dream come true, performing as Odette in one show it was amazing to dance an amazing solo in front of an audience and experience the lead-up and rehearsal that go into the production of a ballet an experience I will never forget.
My job at DanceXchange has given me an amazing opportunity to build my negotiation, flexibility, accountability and leadership skills. I have been working at danceXchange since year 7, performing tasks like serving customers which includes designing and putting together costumes and accessories, restocking shelves and organizing our stock. Recently in 2021 I was promoted to Junior Manager in which my role was to lead, train and support the staff as well as opening and closing and running the store when the owner was away. This recent promotion and this job has taught me so much about design and costuming as well as many real life lesson and skills about working in the real world, I am so greatfull to work in this job as it has taught me about hard work.
I have had the amazing opportunity to work alongside and be apart of the schools Arts Council since year 8. I love and enjoy taking part in all the arts and this has been an amzing opportunity to give back to what I love and ASC and try to spark the love of arts within the community. Whilst being part of the Arts Council, I have attended many meetings to give my opinions and ideas about how to raise awareness about the arts and its activities. I have taken part in organizing many activities such as the flash mob, co curricular fair and speaking in Chapel, making flyers and contributing to the schools hot house Instagram raising awareness about the many activities and performances ASC offers..
I have been doing voice lessons since junior school and have performed many solos and concerts, sung in chapel and assemblies and represented ASC in venues around Perth. I really enjoy partaking in the choir and have been a part of The College Choir, Girls Choir and ensembles on both a recreational and competitive level since year 2. I love music and performing with friends. Since the beginning of choir, I have had amazing opportunities to perform solos, and duets and lead the choir and help other students performing in concerts, eisteddfods, charity events, chapel as well as taking part in many workshops. The choir has given me the opportunity to learn, sing and work with the community, perform and increase my knowledge in this art form.
This year I was given an opportunity to take part in the production of Mama Mia.
This process began with an audition. We took place in a dance audition and then an audition for the leads where we had to sing two songs previously prepared. I was cast as a dancer. We started the vigorous rehersal process, meeting 2-3 times a week, consolidating and rehearsing our lines and choreography for the show. We were responsible for learning our lines, organizing our props and costumes and then taking part in a series of dress rehersals bringing the production together. I tried to help out where I could with props and costumes as well as the leads when I could. We performed in three shows, this was amazing as it was like performing in a real theatre company performing three consecutive nights. Over all this was an amazing experience to be able to perform and be apart of a production and lead the audition process and be part of a theatre company.
I was lucky enough to be chosen to be a ‘Peer Support’ leader for 2022. This journey first started
With one personal development week which began with us working along side our heads of houses and our house mates to take part in a series of exercises showing and developing our leadership and teamwork skills. We then submitted an aplication with a self lead activity to the rest of the group, after we had been accepted we split into our smaller groups and began planning for the year following a series of prompts to base each session on. We began meeting with the year 8’s every Thursday morning in tutor group. We had to lead and take part in activities working to creat a connection between year 8’s and us working to send the message of each activity. This was an amazing opportunity to work with and mentor the younger students as well as to make connections and work on my leadership, team work and communication skills.
This year I was able take my place for the second year as a ‘Student Choreographer’ for the 2022 dance concert ‘Rise’ based on empowerment. In order to acquire this position I had to undergo a selection and audition process. This process included submitting a cover letter, resume and an audition where we were required to lead a warm up and teach 16-24 counts of previously choreographed work and submit our over all themes and concepts. My concept based on the idea of empowerment was on ‘Time’ and the idea that time or the lack of time we have empowers us to live our lives to the fullest. Once my application was accepted, I was employed by The Agency. I chose students from years 11 and 12 who were interested in being in my piece I lead a warm up each session teaching my choreography and preparing my girls for the audition and concerts. I had to do all my own admin work as well as order costumes and design my lighting. This was an amazing experience yet again allowing me to work on my leadership, organisation, and creative skills and teaching me how to lead and manage a team .
From the beginning of year seven I have worked as an ‘Assistant Dance Teacher’ at my dance studio Dance Venture along side the dance teacher, working with children aged 4-6. Whilst teaching, I demonstrate steps and help with choreography and lead a warm up. I often have to deal with separation anxiety with such a young age group making sure all the students feel included and enjoy their time learning ballet. Helping out by dancing along side the student’s, gives them confidence in class and in our concerts helping them not to get stage fright. I help with costuming and looking after my students in the dressing room. I love teaching and find it is an amazing opportunity to help ,inspire and nurture the next generation of dancers.
Another year with Perth city ballet this year I performed in Picnic at hanging rock as well as blue. This was an amazing opportunity being given the role of dance captain which gave me a real opportunity to use my leadership skills. I was in charge of looking after the rest of the cast as well as costuming and props. This was a big responsibility but an amazing opportunity I leant so much enjoyed experiencing the magic of the quarry and performing there, performing 5 nights gave me a bit of a taste of what it is like to dance in a Company an amazing opportunity and always a joy.
In English, I have had many opportunities to display and grow my capabilities. Task 6 Dramatic performance was a learning experience that allowed me to develop my abilities, especially creatively. Working with two classmates, we decided to look at feminism and the mistreatment of women as a whole. We looked at three different social groups, including women who want to stand up and speak up, women who felt powerless and stayed silent, and men who were uneducated and mistreated women. After deciding on our topic, we had to get our creative juices flowing and think creatively about pulling the play together. Thinking creatively, we came up with the unique idea of showing a focal character at three stages of her life to help people understand that this issue affects everyone and make it audience-appropriate.
We had to think creatively about how to costume our play as we had limited resources and no time for significant costume changes. We decided to use symbolic objects to represent each character. The focal character, in different shades of blue as well as having age-related symbolic objects for each stage of her life: child-pigtails, teen-leather jacket, adult-Balzer, lucy-bow, hunter–hat, bus driver-steering wheel, making it easier for us to have multiple characters and for the audience to follow the storyline.
To set the scene for the audience, we created a video displaying each scene’s locations with transition slides to following the storyline. We wanted to think creatively and think of a way we could reach the audience about this issue. We thought of the idea to break the 4th wall and address the audience. We did this at the end of our playset out a protest. We spoke a speech about the real-life issue at hand, bringing this issue into reality into the real world out of the world of the play speaking to the audience, which connected us with the audience. This project allowed me to grow my creativity and helped me to think creatively in new ways to create a performance.
