Over two hundred children from ten local primary schools participated in the Marlborough Dance Festival, held at St John’s on Saturday March 16. They were joined by students from St.John’s Year 10 BTEC Dance group.
The theme for the festival was ‘If you dream it…You can do it’ and this theme was imaginatively explored in dance by each of the schools participating.
Preshute pupils chose to base their dance on climate change, using part of the speech given by Greta Thunberg – the sixteen year Swedish girl who has inspired young people to be involved in campaigning. They wanted to use the festival to raise awareness of climate change amongst the primary schools in the area.
Other schools chose themes such as: ‘Hopes for the future’, dreaming of dancing in ‘Strictly come Dancing’ and dreaming of ‘Where the lost things go’.
This year, Catherine Johnson, teacher at St John’s, was in charge of the organisation of the festival and liaised with all the primary schools. This ensured that the festival went ahead. She was assisted by Emma Whitehouse who helped with the administration and organised the sale of tickets.
At the end of the festival the primary schools all joined together to thank them both as well as Cheryl Heuston and all the dance teachers.
Mary Mundy is Deputy Head at Preshute Primary School: “The festival is such a great opportunity to celebrate dance and the children all enjoy the feeling of dancing on the stage in front of an audience … and of course the opportunity to wear lovely costumes and make-up. There was such a strong sense of community throughout the day and the children were buzzing with excitement.”
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