County Dance Festival

On Wednesday 6th of March, fifteen children from across key stage one and two travelled to St Albans Arena to take part in the County Dance Festival. This festival celebrates dance across schools in Hertfordshire. Each year there is a theme and this year that theme was ‘Art in Action’. Our dance centred round a picture by Vickie Wade and focussed on the idea of growing up, thinking about venturing out into the Arts Sector. The dance portrayed young children aspiring to grow up to become the next photographers, dancers, gymnasts, singers and artists of the world. Our dance was unlike any other in the festival as our accompaniment was performed live with singing from one of our key stage one pupils.

At 7.15am, Miss Vivian and Mr Sears met WR’s group of very excited children. Each child was carrying an enormous rucksack, armed with their costumes, props and enough food and drink to last them for what looked like 2 weeks! We piled onto the coach and set off. As soon as we arrived into the theatre preparation for the shows began. The children took part in a technical rehearsal, performing for the first time on the stage. They couldn’t believe how big it was compared to the space they had been practising in and how many seats the auditorium held. The children then got to sit and watch the other schools dance as well as make a start on eating their mountain of food! It was soon time to get ready for the matinee performance. As the audience took their seats the nerves started setting in, with lots of the children discuss parts of the dance. Soon it was our turn to dance, the children silently went to the wings to wait to go on stage. Miss Vivian and Mr Sears watched from the wings as the children performed the dance amazingly. Everyone’s toes were pointed, faces were smiling and all the steps were remembered, it could not have gone any better!

We then left the theatre and walked down to Pizza Express for dinner, the children were once again extremely excited about the prospect of pizza and ice-cream! The children were sensible and perfect representatives for the school throughout dinner. We arrived back at the theatre and were soon met by lots of parents taking their seats for the evening performance. There was a good mix of nerves and excitement from the children, with lots of smiling faces seeking out members of the audience they knew, including Mr Maranian, Mrs Driver and Mrs Hall. In no time at all, we were stood back in the wings, ready to go and perform our dance for one final time. The children confidently stepped onto the stage and once again their dancing and singing was faultless. Every move was executed precisely and every note was pitch perfect. Mrs Driver, Mrs Hall and Mr Maranian were all blown away by the amazing performances and all commented on how professional our dance looked. After one final finale it was the end of an extremely long, but very exciting day.

With rehearsals for this day starting back in October, all children involved worked extremely hard to learn the dance. They practised in school (with many extra rehearsals in their lunchtimes!) as well as in their own time at home. Miss Vivian was extremely proud of every single one of them; not only for how well they performed but also in how well behaved they all were throughout the day. They all looked after one another, checked all props and costumes were pristine and moved around the theatre in a very mature way; it was a pleasure to take them out for the day!

The children now look forward to performing their dances at Hitchin Girls’ School in July as part of their Gym and Dance display.