Congratulations to all the schools who took part in the Global Rock Challenge finals at the weekend, especially Sandown High, who were reigned champions. Many thanks to Jules Vale for the photos (1-5) and Kate Lines for the write-up and remainder of photos. Ed
A team of 96 dancers, 20 hair and make-up and 15 set crew from Sandown High all went over to Portsmouth Guildhall on the 4th June to compete for the Southern Premier Grand Final against 11 other schools to become the best school in the South in the Premier league.
The team was completely student led, with a committee of 12 students from year 11 to year 13, all the choreography, hair and make-up design, costume design and soundtrack were completely controlled by students and the dancers aged between 13-18.
Everyone went over dressed as cops and robbers for the fancy dress theme, screaming chants all the way to Portsmouth Guildhall. The other Island school entered was Ryde High School, with their theme, ‘The Labyrinth-Unforesaken Road’.
‘The Power, The Price and The Sacrifice’
The piece for Sandown High was called ‘The Power, The Price and The Sacrifice’, based on the story of the Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe.
Our version tells the twisted tale of Narnia; Aslan is already dead and the White Witch wants to enter the human world through Narnia’s gateway, the wardrobe, but the only way she can do this is by stealing the sole of an innocent child, Lucy.
Luring Lucy into Narnia, followed by her brothers and sister, Edmund, Susan and Peter the children meet the scary icicles, the Witch’s army, the fauns who lead the children to the Witch and the menacing lamps who lead the children onto the wrong path.
Lucy realises that the only way to save her siblings and stop the White Witch entering reality is to kill herself, stopping the witch passing through the wardrobe and in turn killing the Witch herself.
This was summed up in our plot read out on the evening, read by the schools co-host Josh Burns, a dancer in the team.
Four awards for Sandown
The school won four awards in total; Best Hair design, Best Staging, Best Performance Skill and The Spirit of Rock Challenge and winning overall first place in the competition.
The team did extraordinarily well, every dancer, hair and make-up person and set crew did a truly amazing job and it is such a great achievement for the school, and the recognition of the eight months of hard work leading up to the event, both by dancers and the student committee is truly deserved.
As a committee member myself, I am so proud of the team and their incredible effort to pull off such an amazing piece and achievement.
Kate Lines, Sandown High School
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