VPHS Magazine 2014 | Page 116

VPHS Arts Festival In our continued effort to promote the Creative Arts at Victoria Park, we once again held our Mini-Arts Festival at the school over the weekend of 15 – 17 May 2014. On the music front, Mr Marlon Louis organised a superb Jazz Festival, and there were quality performances by our Windband, conducted by Mrs Avryl Cheetham and our extremely talented choir under the baton of Mr Wicus Jansen van Rensburg. We were also most privileged to have a performance by the Eastern Cape Youth Choir (which includes four of our own pupils). Our thanks go to Mr Petrus Meyer for this opportunity to listen to an extremely polished choir. Wendy Matthews’ Steelband gave to the occasion that distinctive Festival air both on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. At the Festival, we incorporated our annual OneAct Play Festival as well as many other creative performances such as our Festival of Dance which included a variety of genres from classical to tap to contemporary, as well as an Indian dance performance entitled “Surya” by Aarti Narotam and a fun Zumba Interactive experience lead by Rushka Johnson which had everyone up and dancing. On the Friday afternoon we also hosted the schools’ Ballroom Dancing Championships which added another classy dimension to our Dance Festival. In the Library our extremely talented artists, guided by art teacher Mrs Jenni McGrath, exhibited their work to the beautiful strains of classical music performed by our equally talented musicians. In the marquee on both evenings our young vocalists entertained us either with solo performances or ensembles.The photography club, overseen by Mrs Kelly Ferreira, had a number of powerful pieces on display in the hall foyer. Other creative experiences included our ever popular Poetry and Song, mime, improvisation and theatre sports, puppet shows, a play written and directed by grade 9 learner Andre van Niekerk entitled ‘Brad’s Brilliant Bizarre Encounters’ and our resident fortune teller Madame Gooch . In the afternoon our hip-hop and rap groups performed to an excited audience in a hall bursting at the seams. On the Saturday night, our usual Battle of the Bands was held, in which a number of Rock and Heavy Metal groups battled it out for first position. Whilst this was happening, on the other side of the school (fortunately) Mr Jansen van Rensburg, aka Will Jensen,, took us on a unique introspective journey in his performance entitled “Drie-in-Een”. In order to create a complete Festival ‘feel’, a number of craft and food stalls were incorporated which allowed our Clubs and Societies to raise funds and feed the hordes as well! All in all our Festival was a resounding success – thanks to the Grade 11 Dramatic Arts class for their assistance in the event. Mrs M van der Walt (Festival co-ordinator) 116