On Wednesday 18th October, the Main Hall was full of students and staff waiting in anticipation for the House Dance finals. House Dance is split into three categories: Set Piece (a song is set by Mrs. Brittain for all houses); Free Piece (any music or style); and Solos. Mr Williams attended his first House Dance event as Headteacher, and as one of the three judges joining Mrs Payne from Art and Mr Bala, a veteran House Dance judge.
After the heats, Livingstone (L), Raleigh (R) and Darwin Wilberforce (DW) qualified with both group dances and Kingsley Montgomery (KM) had an excellent Free Piece go through. KM and R also had soloists through: Daniel and Asad respectively.
With ‘Dance the Night’ from the recent and popular Barbie film as the assigned piece of music for all houses, it was surprising to see the variety and difference in creative ideas for the choreography, however, all three dances included bursts of pink with a Disco feel. In the end, L won the set piece, with R and DW finishing in that order behind them on the podium.
For Free Piece, KM had a wonderfully filmed dance (due to one of the four dancers being away on the day). The dance could have easily been mistaken for a professional performance. There was clarity, precision and purpose to every movement and such well thought out choreography. L gave a crowd favourite performance to Justin Beiber’s ‘Let me love you’ with a large group of over 30 dancers from the Junior Years who danced in complete unison. DW moonwalked their way into earning the audience’s favour gaining large cheers with their dance including dancers from a variety of year groups. R gave a spectacle of a performance with their acrobatic and breakdance influenced piece telling the story of ‘fallen soldiers reuniting in heaven’. R won the Free Piece with KM close behind in second place.
Finally, the Solos category this year was as fierce as ever. Y9 Daniel went up against Y13 Asad, who actually made his house dance solo debut despite being a key member of Tiffin Dance for a number of years. Daniel’s recorded performance was incredible but Asad’s smooth, acrobatic dance to Hozier’s ‘Take me to church’ took the win.
Overall, Raleigh won House Dance for a second year in a row and for the fourth time in seven years, winning in the free piece and solo categories as well as coming second in set piece; a testament to their hard work and collaborative efforts.
A huge well done to all House Masters, choreographers and dancers for all their hard work and effort.
Year 13 student
