The year 10 GCSE Dance students performed at Richmond Theatre on Monday 18th October to a 600 strong audience at the Jack Petchey Awards Evening. The students performed their energetic Rock ‘n´ Roll piece exceptionally well and did themselves and Hampton Academy proud. It was lovely to hear comments from the students throughout the evening such as “we have got to meet some wonderful people today, they are amazing. We were scared at the start but as we started dancing we got more confident. It was so fun and the performance went great and all went well" Teachers who were watching the show commented “WOW, it was amazing to watch our year 10 dancers open the show last night - I felt so proud!!" and “the Mayor and his wife came to discuss with me how really impressed they were with the dancing last night."
Stephanie Doyle, a year 11 GCSE Dance student, who had performed at the event last year, was one of the Jack Petchey Award winners this year. It was wonderful watching her receive her award for all of the hard work she has done through Dance.
The evening proved to be even more of a success as it has brought the year 10 group into the spotlight at Hampton Academy as having great promise as a Dance troupe. Dr Demont has been delighted with the comments received from the Jack Petchey Awards Evening so much so that she has invited the group to perform at the prestigious launch of Hampton Academy on Friday 5th November which will be attended by prominent education and political figures.
Below are some comments from the students:
“The dressing room is very professional with lots of lighting around the mirror." (Izzy)
“The theatre helps us get used to performing in a professional venue." (Anna)
“The slanted stage is quite scary but a new and fun stage to dance on." (May)
“It was fun getting to rehearse and perform on a real stage." (Kendy)
“We performed to 600 people." (Mateusz)
“That was a little scary but it was good." (Maciej)
“We had a really good day. Nice changing room/dressing rooms." (Karyn)
“It was a wonderful experience, the stage was nice, and we had a really fun day." (Sayna)
“It was a great day and lots of fun. The performance went really well, and I had a great time dancing with everyone." (Lucy)
Written by Lisa Wasley — Assistant Programme Leader Dance
