Well…It came around slightly quicker than expected this year, but last week was the annual Newport Schools’ Dance Festival. Over the four evenings, pupils from schools across Newport get to perform their dance routines in front of over 400 parents at the Riverfront Theatre. The Dance Festival was originally started by Newport City Council, however, five years ago, the council had a restructure and had to bring it to an end. It was then that some of the staff from St. Julian’s Primary stepped in and offered to keep it going. Last week, we hosted the 19th Dance Festival and it was a roaring success!
Pupils from St. Julian’s Primary performed on the final night of the Festival. This year, we entered three dances; one from our Foundation phase and two from our KS2 pupils.
Following on from her successful choreography for Mrs Gabica’s flash mob, Miss Butcher put together the routine for the foundation phase pupils, who danced to ‘Revolting Children’ from the musical ‘Matilda’. They were anything but revolting though and absolutely smashed their performance, with huge grins on their faces! They even came back onto the stage half-way through to help me with the raffle!
As every year, Mrs Cooke choreographed the KS2 dance routines. Gymnastic Dance Club performed their routine to ‘A Thousand Years’ by Christina Perri and Creative Dance Club performed their routine to a mash-up of recent popular songs. All of the dancers pulled their moves off with incredible precision and accuracy, whilst staying in synchronisation with each other. The girls (and Leo and Jaden!!) were absolutely amazing!
As I was hosting the event, I had the privilege of watching all three performances from side-stage and as our pupils began their routines, I can’t tell you how proud I felt! Seeing them twist, turn, cartwheel, stretch and balance was absolutely mesmerising! I have no idea how they all managed to remember all of their moves, but they did!
Firstly, thank you to our amazing children who have worked so hard over the past few months to learn their dance routines! You were incredible and we are so proud of you!!!
Secondly, thank you to our talented and dedicated teachers: Mrs Cooke and Miss Butcher, who have given up a lot of their own time to choreograph the routines, teach it to the children and also arrange costumes for the pupils.
Thirdly, thank you to the staff from SJPS who gave up their evenings to help run the event. You are truly appreciated! We’re particularly grateful to Mrs Cooke, who single-handedly does most of the organising for the entire Dance Festival every year! Thanks Mrs Cooke, not only on behalf of our pupils and parents, but on behalf of the many pupils across Newport who got to showcase their amazing talent throughout the week, and also on behalf of their parents who went home feeling extremely proud of their little dancers! We wish you well as you start your maternity leave!
All that’s left for me to say is… “Enjoy the show!!”…
