Review of the Gym and Dance Show

This year’s Gym and Dance spectacular was on the theme, “Music through the Decades” to tell the story of how music and dance influenced the songs we hear today. The journey to the end result enabled students to research and learn different styles of dance, as well as discover music they had not heard before. Throughout the evening specific decades were  identifiable, as was modern music that had a long pedigree.

The interval acted as a divide between songs written and performed before the students were born (1920s to 1990s), and songs the students grew up listening to (2000 to 2018).

Students from all year groups participated and everyone proved themselves to be a real credit to the school and to themselves. The evening ran smoothly with fantastic lighting and music from Luke Brinkworth in Year 9 and Archie Smith in Year 8. The event was supported by a full house made up of staff, parents, carers, friends and extended family members of the performers. There were many so many compliments, but three words do sum it up succinctly,  “a roaring success”.

The gym performances were performed by students among whom were hockey and rugby players.  The audience was entertained by tap dances of Tilly Sutcliffe in Year 11, Nimisha Wratten in Year 9, Hermione McTighe in Year 10 and Erin Johnston in Year 9.  Elliot Kerley in Year 8 received much applause for his street dance.  The Year 10 and Year 11 GCSE PE students performed individual or group dance or gymnastics pieces that they had choreographed as part of their GCSE course. All of these students excelled on the night for the range of skills they displayed, their dedication and ability to tell a story through a sequence of movements.

Throughout the process, from initial ideas to performance, the students showed an ability to be resilient, responsible and respectful. The show required a huge investment of time at lunch, after school, at weekends and in their own time away from school. These are life skills that GMS want to promote. The staff cannot praise the students enough for their commitment to the event: they were a credit to themselves, their families and the school.

GMS thank all the staff who helped make the show so successful, on top of a school day they worked tirelessly. A special thanks goes to Elaine Rooney for all the pictures and the programmes she designed and printed for the evening. Finally, we thank all who came to watch and enthusiastically clapped all the performances.

The lead staff are extremely proud all of the students and the huge effort they put into making the evening memorable.