On Thursday 16th October all Prep school pupils and staff danced their way around the new drama studio led by visiting theatre group HotBuckle Productions. Years 1,2 and 3 watched exciting performances of The Gruffalo and The Emperors New Clothes and also explored their own imagined worlds through some interactive storytelling. The children’s own ideas for a play were brought to life as the three actors from HotBuckle improvised their way through the children’s stories about a kidnapped prince and a two legged pig!

Whilst years 4, 5 and 6 each had an hour’s dance workshop which saw the children dance their way through a colourful array of music and cultures. The children developed their group skills by devising sequences set to emotive music and the whole of Year 5 together created a human emotion machine {PICTURE?} which saw all the children co-operatively contributing movements and noises! A great sight!

At an evening INSET it was the turn of Alton Convent staff and visiting teachers from local primary schools to don their legwarmers and head bands, and leap into action! Staff were encouraged to make dance accessible for all children through paired and group work and to allow children to experiment with movements, travelling and sequences to music within their own interpretations. Dance was linked to areas of the curriculum such as Mathematics and Science as we floated like molecules and built visual bar graphs!

The whole day proved to be a fantastic educational, expressive drama and dance experience, and a whole lot of fun was had too!

Chloe Hillier,
Drama Coordinator.