Wakakirri dancers wow the judges

Once again, our Wakakirri team has done the College proud, winning a number of awards for their 2023 performance, finishing as State winners.  Wakakirri is a nationwide initiative for Australian schools that provides a platform for students to express their thoughts, ideas, and aspirations through the art of storytelling and dance. Inspired by the belief that great stories can inspire change, Wakakirri is designed to promote student engagement and wellbeing in schools through the creation and performance of captivating story-dances.

At Helena, our Wakakirri  team include students from Years 3 to 6. It provides the ideal way to showcase the dance skills of all participants, encouraging teamwork, cooperation and a sense of community across both our campuses. Not only that, our Year 6s, who are based on the Senior School campus in Glen Forrest, acted as role models and leaders for their Junior School peers down the road in Darlington. A special whole-school assembly allowed the dancers to practice ahead of the concert, with raucous cheers from an impressed audience of some 500 students!

With more than 90 students involved this year, it required careful choreography to ensure all got their opportunity to shine on stage. Providing costumes for a cast of this size was no mean feat, and the College is very grateful to the many parent volunteers who stepped in to help, along with the dedicated staff who planned every aspect, guided and supported the enthusiastic crew. 

After months of planning, rehearsing, costume making and more, our young performers came away with FIVE awards after their on-stage dancing at the Perth Concert Hall on 7 August, including:

• Storytelling Award for a great blockbuster production style
• Ensemble Award for group dance
• Production Award for costumes 
• Creative Production Award for overall costume design
• Storytelling Award for story theme and concept

Wakakirri Ambassador, Libby Hammer, provided some terrific feedback for our young dances

'This was a wonderful story about the necessity of working together as a team to share resources on a far-flung planet. Of course, the parallel to the limited resources of our own planet was made very clear with powerful imagery and a very creative team ‘world costume’. 

All of the costumes were absolutely excellent and the space shuttle a very creative touch. This performance had many enjoyable comedic moments and the smiles on the faces of the performers were wonderful to see. The dancing was so well-rehearsed as to be like clockwork, and the formations very effective to the eye. Congratulations, Helena College, on a very fun and colourful story dance with a super clear message.'

The students - supported by staff and an army of parent volunteers - put together a stellar performance and should be very proud of what they have achieved. Well done to all involved!