Senior students from five Western Australian high schools came to NIDA for workshops and performance presentations with outstanding results.
Senior students from five Western Australian high schools came to NIDA for workshops and performance presentations with outstanding results.
Drama teacher David Balentine has been travelling to NIDA with groups of Western Australian students for over 15 years. This year he was part of a group of five high schools to take part in workshops and performance presentations. The program is part of an annual immersion for the Drama students to explore options for their school projects, and to devise their own work alongside industry leaders.
The students explored movement, music and gesture, vocal technique, physical theatre and ensemble work and presented the outstanding results to each other in NIDA’s Parade Theatre.
‘The majority of these students have no dance experience, which makes the movement work they have been producing all the more exceptional,’ said David. ‘That is one of the benefits of coming to these four-day workshops.’
‘At NIDA they can go beyond the one-hour classes they experience during school. It frees them from the constraints of a normal class room to be immersed into this art form. The ensembles that work together are made up of groups of students from different schools. They interact with students from different backgrounds, and with the exception of one group who are a co-ed school, different genders as well.’
‘When they arrive they are very school focused, but towards the end they are interacting with each other, and their ability to feel free to explore dramatic experiences is really enhanced. They take away increased confidence and the ability to develop their self-devised pieces for the HSC as year 12 student.
‘The students are of mixed ability, some are formidable, but the strength of the final performances is that the whole ensemble takes a risk and so the group is strengthened.’
David says that as a teacher, the NIDA week provides him with the opportunity to explore options in the classroom. ‘It allows me to see what students can do. Sometimes we teachers are also afraid to take risks in the art form, and this experience allows us to see different techniques outside the school context. It gives us some exposure to current industry trends, and deepens our experience while providing us with some inspiration as well.’
For more information about NIDA’s Schools Program including the Creative Ambassadors program, visit https://www.nida.edu.au/schools-and-teachers.
