An unusual variety of dance and commedia!

We had over 40 students perform last night for the dance evening. Forty! There were performances from the BFS Cheerleaders, GCSE Dance students, BFS Pom Dancers, Bradon Forest Theatre Commedia Troupe and special guests Gyi Dance. The Cheerleaders opened the show with their 4th place routine from the recent UKCA National Schools’ Cheerleading Championships. This was then followed by a highly entertaining and amusing piece by the BFS Commedia Troupe whose entire performance was created by the students themselves. I especially enjoyed the silhouette of the surgery scene!

The GCSE Dance students were up next with a selection of solo compositions, closely followed by the Pom Dancers who took to the floor suitably dressed in Halloween style costumes to performed their routine to Thriller/Heads Will Roll from Glee. Next up were the GCSE Dance students who performed a group dance based on The Lion King’s: He Lives In You.

Finally, GYI Dance ended the show with an interesting and creative performance based around carnivals. GYI Dance are choreographed by Hannah Guy, a specialist dance teacher who you may remember from previous posts, having worked with many of our students. We like Hannah we do.

Miss Pratten, our PE teacher who has worked with the GCSE and cheerleading groups, said:

"The evening was a great success as each student performed brilliantly and did themselves proud. The level of talent that was seen was outstanding and next year’s show is shaping up to be just as exciting!"

And then I go and spoil it all...

Thank you to everyone who came out for our Karaoke Night to raise money for the Japan Appeal. We all had a great night and once the first few songs were done, the requests kept rolling in! I can only apologise for turning in to a bit of a cheesy '70's DJ whilst dancing behind the request desk, but you all picked such good tunes! We very much look forward to hosting more of these nights in the future, but in the mean time if you have the karaoke bug, don't miss the regular lunch time slots in Music 2, 11.55!

Special kudos to Olly and Jack for their beautiful duet, Somethin' Stupid. Just lovely ;o)

For your entertainment...

It's that time of year again when we can confirm the line up for our Summer Arts Festival! Due to the fact that we are supporting the Big Arts Day at Lydiard Park on Saturday 9th July, the arts week is lower key than usual, but no less fun!

Tuesday 5th July
Are you a Sing Star? Fancy yourself as a Rock Band god? Then come and show your talents at the Bradon Forest Karaoke Night!

Raising money for the Red Cross Japan Appeal, the night promises to be full of laughter, musical cheese and the odd flat note. All are welcome so bring your friends, family and get your teacher along too!With a special guest to the get the ball rolling, this is a night not to miss!
* 7.30pm - 9pm, £2 entry

Wednesday 6th July
Featuring: The Bradon Forest Cheerleaders, a variety of dance from our GCSE group, the Bradon Forest Theatre Commedia Troupe... Plus a special guest performance from Gyi Dance!
* 7.30pm, £3 students, £4 adults

Thursday 7th July

Come and see your teachers perform with their Rock Bands! Featuring:
Miss Hedges with one of her many bands...
Mr Hutchings on drums with Lydia Twenty...
Mr Thomas on bass with Dark Horse...
With special support from our very own Lost Ravine!
* 7.30pm, £3

All tickets on sale now!

Too many highlights to mention!

Last night saw the last music concert of the season, and what a way to see us out! There were too many highlights to mention. We had some great numbers performed by the orchestra's and choirs, including their finale piece, 'Walking on Sunshine' which they performed together. It was great to see that we have more solo and ensemble performances than ever before, and we're still seeing new faces even at this stage in the year!

One of our GCSE Music groups (pictured) performed their own composition, 'Old You', which I was still humming at the end of the night having particularly enjoyed the mix of acoustic and electric guitar. The second group incorporated piano, chime bars and a ukulele for their own arrangement of popular chart songs which use the same four chords.

Talking of ukulele's, Mr Duncan led his 'band of merry men' in 'Live and Let Die'. Oh, I only wish we had it on video. Mr Duncan did warn the audience that they may have set their sight's too high with this difficult song, but they didn't disappoint! We could only look on in amazement as they plucked away at the memorable guitar solo on their tiny instruments. The only question we have is, what will they play next time?

Miss Groom, our Head of Music, sent out these words to school staff this morning:

"As you pass around the school tomorrow please pass on HUGE congratulations to all those that participated in the Music Concert tonight. They were fantastic. The theatre was packed and the room was buzzing...they did us proud! Special mention to Jack who did a great job guiding us through the evening...a star in the making. Over 50 participants - staff and students...well done to all!"

I tweeted last night that it was yet another superb concert and had a little moan that there are only four a year. Even our Staff Handchime Group managed to not embarrass ourselves too much. Oh no wait, we did a little. But if anyone asks, our 'interpretation' of 'Last of the Summer Wine' was supposed to be that fast. It was, ummm, a dance remix... for the kids...

You know it's going to be a good day when...

... you receive the copy and images for the new Gonzo Moose show!

Pegasus presents Gonzo Moose in…
GRIMM and GRIMMER
The Misadventures Of The Brothers Grimm

1806. It was cold. It was dark. It was almost certainly snowing…

Brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm and their beloved sister, Lotte travel into deepest Bavaria. They are assembling what will become the greatest collection of fairy tales ever published.

But now reality and fantasy are colliding and the family Grimm find themselves trapped in a twisted fantasy world of their own fairy tales.

Are the hapless heroes in grave danger? Yes.
From what? We can’t tell you.
Will they make it back alive? I hope so.

Having previously thrilled audiences with hit shows Is That A Bolt In Your Neck? and You Don’t Need To Know That!, Gonzo Moose are back with a comedy fairy tale adventure bursting with physical comedy, absurd jokes and magical illusion.

Featuring special guest appearances from Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, Tom Thumb, Little Red Riding Hood and Rumplestiltskin…subject to their availability.

I'm so excited already! Make sure you have November 17th in your diaries!

Arts Award Pilot Scheme. Done.

I have great news! Our first five Bronze Arts Award students have passed with flying colours! I received the moderators comments through last week, but had to wait until I'd told them all personally before announcing to the world. As part of the Bronze Award, the youngsters had to complete four parts:

1. Be the audience
2. Take part in the Arts
3. Arts Heroes and Heroines
4. Arts Apprenticeships

They led dance classes and workshops, instructed warm up sessions for Drama Club, performed in shows and competitions and filmed a review chat show after watching a professional performance. Their research was presented as story books and power points and one Bronzer even wrote her research on Freddie Mercury as lyrics to a medley of all her favourite Queen tracks!

All five Bronzers showed creativity and dedication and I think that not only did they all enjoy the award, they all learnt something from the experience.

"The five Bronze portfolios submitted by Jennifer from Bradon Forest School were part of a pilot scheme within the school and have succeeded excellently! These five portfolios were thorough and very creatively presented (especially the diary from Ania for her Part B - excellent). Good levels of evidence in all parts. The young people have obviously benefited a great deal from their Arts Award. Well done."

- Dannsia Iwaszko

Congratulations to Claudia Brinkworth, Fleur Calder, Chloe Stollery-Clarke, Bradley Williams and Ania Witka. Now for the Silver Award and the next phase of Bronze...

Trinity College 2011 Playwriting Competition

Plays for children and young people can excite and inspire writers, performers and audiences. Now in its second year, the International Playwriting Competition encourages new writing in this field, recognising the very best with cash prizes, performances on the London stage and publication with international distribution. Writers are asked to submit a one-act play that is either:

• suitable for performers aged 11 years and under

or

• intended for an audience aged 12–16 years.

The competition is open to writers of any age, of any level of experience and from any country. All plays must be written substantially or entirely in the English language.

Prizes in each category:

• cash prize of £1,000 for the winning writer
• Trinity College London will publish the winning plays in a collection of plays from the competition
• winning play to be performed at a gala event at a London theatre in January 2012
• travel and accommodation costs for the writer to attend the gala performance.

In addition, up to six ‘Highly Commended’ awards:

• cash prize of £500
• Trinity College London will publish the winning plays in a collection of plays from the competition.

Awards will also be made for The Most Promising Playwright(s) aged 11 years and under and The Most Promising Playwright(s) aged 12–16 years.

For full details see the Trinity College website, or click here to enter the competition.

Big Arts Day Big Choir

This year the Big Arts Day team want to end the day with a spectacular community arts finale involving hundreds, if not thousands, of local people of all ages.

As part of the overall vision they want to create the largest ever community choir in Swindon and they’ve organised a meeting where you can find out more and help them work out if and how they can do this. Everyone is welcome to come and find out more, you don’t have to be part of a choir, just keen to get singing and keen to be involved.

The launch meeting will be held on 18th May 2011 at The Platform, Faringdon Road, Swindon SN1 5BJ from 17.30 to 19.00. Please confirm to Jeanette Ketcher (phone 01793 465023) to let them know if you can come, so they can make sure they have got enough coffee, tea and biscuits ready.

Please help them by spreading the word about this meeting and please do invite anyone else you think would be interested.

Photos: The Importance of Being Arty

The Importance of Being Arty, a set on Flickr.

WORST CASE SCENARIO:
You don't have tickets yet for The Importance of Being Arty. Your friends see the show tonight. They come in to school tomorrow and tell you how amazing it was. You want to see it. So does everyone else. Thursday's show sells out. You miss out!

You can prevent this situation!
There are still a few tickets left for both performances.
Come and buy yours today from the Arts Office in the Dance Studio!

The Importance of Being Arty
Wednesday 11th and Thursday 12th May
7.30pm - 8.15pm
Tickets: £3 students, £4 adults

Youth Dance Summer School at Gloucestershire Dance

I've just had a mail through to let us know about this years summer school at Gloucestershire Dance , so I thought I'd pass it on! It's a three day workshop in July and looks pretty good, so I'd recommend booking early. See their website for more information.