Dance Show brings natural world to life
Creatures of the sky, sea, desert and jungle were catapulted to centre stage at this year’s Dance Show.
The show, entitled ‘One Planet, Many Lives’, was created as an homage to legendary natural historian, David Attenborough as he prepares to celebrate his 100th birthday this year.
Spanning across different biomes, our dancers wove together dance with Attenborough’s commentary from his decades of broadcasting.
The show began with ‘The Earth from the Air’ as our Contemporary Masterclass Club performed as migrating birds. The piece was choreographed by guest dance teacher Shannon Platt and was set to music by Max Richter.
Moving on to the oceans, the next dance from Fourth Year Games Group gave us a glimpse under the waves as they danced to music by Pete Townshend.
Junior Contemporary Masterclass and Senior Jazz Club continued the aquatic theme as they portrayed a shoal of fish and penguins respectively. Legendary French composer Camille Saint-Saëns provided the ethereal backdrop the shoal of fish, while the penguins put on an upbeat show to music by Gia Farrell.
Gaby Di Gennaro performed the first of the evening’s solos with a ballet piece set to ‘The Swan’ again by Saint-Saëns. The piece was Gaby’s take on the famous ‘Dying Swan’ solo from the ballet ‘Swan Lake’.
Rounding off the ocean section of the show was Second Year Lyrical and Contemporary Dance Club who gave the thimble jellyfish their time to shine through their performance.
Grasslands was the second biome on the list and our Third Year Games Group kicked off the section with a piece about zebras. This dance gave a critique into the dangers of hunting for sport and was set to the music of Simon Jeffs.
Continuing with the theme of awareness, deforestation was up next as Charley Ashton and Hannah Wolley performed a duet to Ludovico Einaudi’s music.
Another duet followed which was choreographed and performed by Third Years Sophia Garner and Bethan Morriss. Their piece centred around the colourful flamingo and gave a jazzy lift to the show.
Disco snails then took to the stage. Featuring dancers from the Middle and Upper School Street Jazz Club, the dancers ended the first half of the show on a high and the audience enjoyed their funky take on the often-overlooked animal.
During the interval refreshments were served in the Edmond’s café.
Following the interval, the theme of nature was briefly paused as the audience was treated to this year’s Making Moves entry. The competition fosters youth choreography in schools and connects young people with some of the industry’s foremost creators.
This year SGS has been lucky enough to be paired with internationally acclaimed choreographer, Sir Richard Alston. Sir Richard’s career spans many decades, and he has choreographed for the Royal Danish Ballet, the Royal Ballet, Scottish Ballet and was the artistic director for the Ballet Rambert.
The Making Moves piece was inspired by the architecture of The Oculus transportation hub in New York. Our dancers chose movements that reflect the unique architecture of the building as well as incorporating more ‘traditional’ styles such as ballet and contemporary.
Act two opened with a section on deserts.
Third and Fourth Year Lyrical and Contemporary Club performed a piece about sand dunes set to music by Hans Zimmer.
Upper Sixth Former Rosie Moore performed a solo in homage to horned vipers. Rosie has been a regular on the stage at SGS and this will be her last dance show with us before she takes her final A Level exams in the summer.
The African social spider was the focus of the next dance by the Fifth Year Games Group. Often misunderstood creatures, the group showed the social lifestyle of the animals in a piece with music from Tom Howe.
Music by Antonio Vivaldi was the perfect backdrop to a dance about larks which was performed by sisters Grace and Rose Ferguson.
Fifth Year Eleanor Margo gave a critique about habitat destruction with her solo set to The Police’s song, ‘SOS’. The piece was co-choreographed by Eleanor and visiting dance teacher Miss Platt.
The jungle biome was the last to be featured and was kicked off with an upbeat dance by our First Year Dance Club. Portraying the indris of Madagascar the dancers had the audience bopping along to the song.
Malak Hroo and Cara Taylor were up next and performed a slower piece to music by Patrick Watson in which they took on the role of butterflies.
Our Boys Only Dance Club hit the stage next and gave an energetic performance about the evolution of man. The piece was choreographed by our visiting dance teacher, Cameron Woolnough.
Our final solo of the evening was Ella Livingstone who choreographed her piece about Mother Earth and was set to music by Karilene.
Fireflies were the inspiration for Lower Sixth dancers Giulia Burns, Phoebe Fox and Ella Merryweather who performed to music by Novo Amor.
The final dance of the show was an upbeat performance from the Street Jazz and Commercial Dance Club, set to music by Chic. Chameleons were the focus of the piece and was inspired by choreographer Molly Long.
Dance Teacher Mrs Abi Downing said: “It is always tremendous to see so many of our pupils performing so beautifully on our stage. As always, our dancers embraced the challenge of the theme of the show and worked incredibly hard to bring the vision to life.
“The joy they took in their performance spilled over to the audience and this was wonderful to see.”
