Term 2 and we are back! 3 weeks in and we have ticked off 3 HUGELY successful Fusion Nights! These specialised nights were introduced in 2015 for DBS’ Fusion students in order to better understand and learn in depth about the culture of the dance that they were focusing on that year! This year it was based on the same idea, but ALL students in 10yrs and up were invited to come along.
First off the rank was the 10yrs. In 2016 they are learning about the Mexican Hat Dance and Mexican culture! Therefore, we held a night watching Mexican clips, and learning about the culture of dance in Mexico and Mexico itself! All while eating Nachos of course! The 10yrs had a FANTASTIC time and learnt LOADS! The students split up into groups to make a ‘creative’ presentation of everything they learnt, and these presentations were easily the HIGHLIGHT of the night! Boy the 10yrs students are extremely confident and CREATIVE! Miss Angela was over the moon with their attitude and effort towards the night. We can’t wait to do it again in 2017!
The following week we held a Motown inspired night for the 12 and 14yrs teams! We had over 30 students attend and they consumed some serious amounts of pizza! We watched ‘Dreamgirls’ a musical movie based on a group of African American singers trying to make it to the big time in the 1960s and 1970s! They learnt about the struggles the music and entertainment industry had with the difference in cultures, and how much harder it was for African American people. Along with that they were able to grasp the elegance and style of the era which they are focusing on in 2016, which will go a long way in their classes! The music, dancing and costumes were a highlight for all and everyone throughly enjoyed the night!
The following night was the Opens Retreat. A sleepover for the #SQUAD82 Team! There was work to be done first with a costume fitting for the students in order to keep the staff occupied until all hours of the morning! Miss Angela then split the students up into groups for a research task! Each group was given 2-3 people or groups who were instrumental in the influence of the hip-hop culture which started in the USA. The students then had to present to each other a summary of each person they researched, which will soon contribute to the creation of the DBS Dance History Wall! The Opens also consumed a load of pizza before going absolutely crazy in a series of dance battles and sing-offs! The team received their team shirts for 2016 and took their first official photo….they had some strange visitors while this was happening though…a HIGHLIGHT for all. See photo below!
They then settled down to watch some clips of the ‘Royal Family Crew’, an urban dance crew from New Zealand, they also watched some Missy Elliot videos along with a bunch of other hip-hop inspired clips! Everyone LOVED it and drew a lot of inspiration from them. The students then went back to CRAZY TOWN, dancing and singing to all hours of the morning, before crashing out at 5am!!
Yet another great time was had by ALL, and we thank all the students from every age group who came along to make the 2016 Fusion Nights a HIT!
