Oulder Hill Community School and Language College

Oulder Hill Community School

A reminder that school is now closed for the half-term holiday, and will reopen at the usual time of 8.25am on Monday 20 February. We hope you all have a relaxing and enjoyable break. Parents and Carers of Year 9 students please note that parents’ evening for your child takes place on 23 February and your child will make appointments for you to see their teachers.

Congratulations to our Year 10 and 11 Dancers, who recently took part in a highly prestigious dance event at Salford’s Lowry Theatre. The event, known as “Signatures”, involved over 20 dance groups from around the North West who, along with Oulder Hill, had to successfully audition in order to take part. Only the best groups were allowed to perform, so we were especially proud that our students were able to secure a place in the show.

Many readers will be aware that Oulder Hill has a strong pedigree and tradition in expressive arts activities. Following on from the success of last year’s boys’ dance group “Company Flex”, the Key Stage 4 dance company, known as “Quantised” was formed in September, to include our elite dancers. The piece they performed at the Lowry was based on a professional work by Sean Parker called “Happy as Larry” and was based around the concept of happiness and how we have fun, or indeed, stop fun. Cody Parfitt took a key role as a comic character on the periphery - he was not allowed to join in the fun therefore this added some memorable humour to the dance. Overall, it is a lively dance work full of recognisable games and quirky movements in which the dancers buckle and curve around one another.

The students were delighted to take part, seeing it as a “chance of a lifetime” to perform to a full house in the Salford Quays theatre, and their confidence and commitment was clear for all to see in the wonderful quality of their performance. The event was organised and seen by some leading professionals such as Kevin Edwards, who commented in particular on the excellence of the choreography and clarity of performance by our students.

Our dance group included Beth Greenwood and Jessica Dale, who both successfully auditioned for the CATS programme last summer, beating hundreds of other young hopefuls. CATS, which stands for “Centre for Advanced Dance Training” is an ongoing scheme for students who wish to become professional dancers or performers – both Beth and Jessica have attended workshops there since. The CATS youth dance company were also represented at the Lowry.

Both Mrs Royle and Miss Bold attended the event and choreographed the piece with the help of the students. We would also like to thank local music composer Andrew Bowen, who wrote a piece especially for the dance work.

A very proud Mrs Royle said “Working with the students and Miss Bold to create this wonderful dance piece has been an absolute privilege, and experiencing the progress each student made during the rehearsals and the performance was amazing. We can’t wait for our next show!”

Quantised are now preparing for the next big dance showcase, which will take place on March 11th – this is a Spiral Dance and Oulder Hill showcase entitled “Dance Meets Sports” and will be held in our very own Gracie Fields Theatre. Miss Bold’s boys’ group, “Company Flex”, will also be performing, so be sure to get a ticket – these are available online at www.graciefieldstheatre.com, or alternatively by phoning the box office on (01706) 716689.