After travelling to Sydney to perform at the National Institute of Dance, a group of Year 7, 8 and 9 dance students from MacKillop College has won a State Award in the national Wakakirri Story-Dance Festival for primary and Secondary schools.

The students were also called back to give an encore of their ‘Lights, Camera, Action’ performance as a finalist in the National Awards in Sydney on 4 September.

Wakakirri is Australia’s largest performing arts event for schools with over 200 schools taking part in 2023. The Wakakirri ethos, ‘great stories inspire change’, is used by participating schools to create and perform stories in dance that reflect students’ thoughts, ideas and aspirations.

Adam Loxley, Festival Director, said, “The standard of performance and the stories being told by schools this year was exceptional and MacKillop College should be very proud of their award”.

MacKillop College’s ‘Lights, Camera, Action’ story is about a young boy from the country with big dreams of becoming a famous film director.

Wakakirri Ambassador Scott Irwin described the MacKillop performance as “A colourful and stylish trip through the career of Baz Luhrmann!”

MacKillop College also won the following awards:

• Ensemble Award for Dancing and Acting
• Production Award for Overall Staging
• Creative Production Award for Overall Costume Design
• Ensemble Award for Choreography
• Production Award for Projection

A huge congratulations to all the Wakakirri performers, backstage crew, production design team and teachers on this wonderful achievement. Chookas (or good luck in theatre-speak) for the national final!