Latest Arts News

House Battle Competition

posted 22 Jun 2020, 21:32 by Georgina Hewitt [ updated 28 Jun 2020, 13:55 ]

UPDATE: Official photos from the Dio House Battle event (a special COVID-19 version of House Singing for 2020) held in the All Saints Chapel, can be viewed on the link below. https://drive.gallery/share/cbr3ef

The live stream had issues with logins, but it was recorded which we hope to share more widely soon. With our traditional House Singing 2020 being cancelled due to the aftermath of COVID19, the House Leaders decided they wanted to make their legacy known and along with the House Singing team, they bring you a one off HOUSE BATTLE to be held on Friday 26 June 2020 in the All Saints Chapel.

It is similar in the fact that we are singing, and that we will rehearse during the day, but instead of performing that night in Claudelands, we are performing in the afternoon at school. Unfortunately due to space, we cannot invite parents/caregivers or whanau to the event. We are hoping to stream it live on our Facebook page and will update you if this is possible.

What will Friday look like?
There will be no classes, and it will be a mufti day in your House Colours. All that needs to be brought to school is your water bottles, lunch, and morning tea. Students will start their day by meeting in their assigned House areas where the Y13s will start to teach everyone the song. Everyone will get some time in the chapel to work out where they will sit and how they get on stage. When you are not in the chapel you are rehearsing in other venues around the school.

Lunchtime is slightly earlier at 12.20pm and will go for 30 minutes. Then form time will follow where we ask everyone to lock their bags and phones away in their form classes before heading to the chapel promptly.

If you are sick or feeling unwell on the day, please stay home and get your caregivers to contact the school regarding your absence as normal. If you are feeling unwell on the day, please let a supervising teacher know and go to the Wellness Centre.

If you have any questions, please ask your House Leader, Form Teacher, Mrs Greenslade or Miss Hewitt.

Please see the schedule below to see where your House will be at various points of the day.

Orchestra Workshop

posted 21 Jun 2020, 14:43 by Georgina Hewitt [ updated 21 Jun 2020, 14:48 ]

During lockdown the DiOrchestra was able to still have practices on Zoom every Wednesday. During these rehearsals we would all be on mute and would play along to a recording of our pieces. This helped us to keep on top of our music so when we got back to school we all were playing our pieces well and making good progress. On the 20th of June the DiOrchestra was able to have a workshop with Tim Carpenter, throughout the afternoon we had sectionals with outside tutors/specialists including Mr Burnell, Mrs Kane, Mrs Bev Oliver, Oliver Barratt, Mr Chris Nation, Mrs Anne Mendrun, Mrs Smith and participated in the workshop with Tim Carpenter where we worked on technique and improved our 4 pieces for this year, which are Pirates Of The Caribbean, Wonder Woman, Gallop from the collection Ring Around The Moon and and a Arrangement of Amadeus by Mozart. At the end of the day we had a concert for our friends and family which was well attended. It was a fun day and we worked really hard and made good progress. Many thanks to Richard Lummus for the photos.

We really appreciate the input from our musical community working with us to become better musicians. We look forward to performing some pieces at the end of the term to residents at Hilda Ross Retirement Village.

Orchestra workshop 2020

Y13 Drama Solo performances

posted 10 Jun 2020, 14:15 by Georgina Hewitt

The Level 3 Drama class would like to invite you to attend one of their performance nights next week. On Monday and Wednesday nights (the 15th and 17th of June) at 7pm in PM2 they will be performing their original solo works. Devised and performed by the students themselves, the Solos are based on the life of a famous, or infamous, woman from history. The Level 3 Solos don't usually have a public audience, but this year, with all productions cancelled, this will be the only opportunity for the Year 13s to perform. It would be so wonderful for the girls to have a good audience for this, their last Drama performance at Dio.

To reserve a seat, please get your daughter to write your name on the reserve list on the Drama office door, or email arts@wdsg.school.nz

Lord of the Flies Cancelled

posted 10 Jun 2020, 14:09 by Georgina Hewitt

The school production team has spent the last three weeks tirelessly working through the challenges of staging our production of Lord of the Flies later in the year. Despite our best efforts, we have not been able to overcome all the obstacles that Covid-19 presented. With sadness and great disappointment, we have made the decision to cancel the 2020 production of Lord of the Flies. There are many reasons behind this decision and we want to reassure the cast, band, and school whanau that we did everything we could to hold onto the production.

Congratulations to our talented students on the incredible show that they created. This will not be known as the production that we lost, it will be known as the production that nearly was. We know that there will be questions around this decision and we have addressed some of them below.

We will not be bringing back Lord of the Flies in 2021.
The cast and band are able to use their participation in the production as part of their application for Arts Honours.
Please contact the School Shop ddove@wdsg.school.nz for information about ticket refunds.

I would like to acknowledge the incredible team of staff that has worked since last September to bring this production to life. The hours of work cannot be measured, nor can the amount of talent that they have brought to the organisation, music, set, costumes, props, marketing, hair/makeup and choreography in this production. Dio is very blessed to have such a passionate and gifted team of staff who make productions happen simply because they love the arts and they love giving your daughters the opportunity to be involved in something creative.

And finally, a big thank you to our amazing sponsors: Stronglite Staging; Vivid Images Ltd, ACLX, Dio Proprietor's Board.

Lee Armitage

Director and HoD Drama

larmitage@wdsg.school.nz

Lord of the Flies Production Postponed

posted 17 Mar 2020, 13:23 by Georgina Hewitt [ updated 17 Mar 2020, 15:11 ]

Dear Dio Community

In light of the government advice given to schools regarding gatherings and assemblies etc, and keeping the health and wellbeing of our students and the Dio community at the forefront of our decision-making process, we are suspending rehearsals and performances of the school production of ‘Lord of the Flies’. This will be a postponement rather than a cancellation and rehearsals and performances will resume at a later date once it is considered safe to do so.

Students involved in the production should be reassured that all of their hard work will not be lost and a timeline towards performance will be put in place and communicated as soon as it is possible for us to do so.

For those who have already purchased tickets, a full refund will be available as soon as it can be organised. However tickets can be held over until such time as the performances go ahead.

While this is obviously disappointing for all who are involved in the production, the health and wellbeing of our students and the Dio community will always be our first priority.

If you have any questions about the Production in the interim, please do not hesitate to contact Arts Administrator, Georgina Hewitt on 07 855 2038 extension 2864 or email ghewitt@wdsg.school.nz

Warm regards,

Lee Armitage Georgina Hewitt

Director - Lord of the Flies Producer - Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies - Tickets on Sale

posted 4 Mar 2020, 23:29 by Georgina Hewitt [ updated 9 Mar 2020, 12:56 ]

Tickets are available now from the Dio School Shop 07 855 2038 ext 2766 or schoolshop@wdsg.school.nz

Shop opening hours 8.15am-4pm Monday-Friday. Tickets cannot be disbursed to an account. They must be paid for via cash, EftPOS, or credit card (with 1.5% surcharge).

PARENTAL GUIDANCE ADVISED - Dark and Violent Themes

Waikato Diocesan School For Girls’ major production for 2020 is ‘Lord of the Flies’. On a beach somewhere in the pacific ocean, a group of teenagers survive a plane crash. It seems idyllic, this tropical paradise of no adults and no rules...until it isn’t anymore and things go very bad, very fast.

With a dark and intense soundtrack, played live by a band on stage, and a set of sand and broken plane and jungle....this extremely physical version of the classic novel brings alive the fear and horror of William Goulding’s ‘Lord of the Flies’. Focusing on the idea of what makes us human, rather than on the traditional masculine themes, this production of ‘Lord of the Flies’ will have audiences on the edge of their seats, quietly asking themselves ‘What would I do?’.

The impact of technology and the pervasive nature of social media in our lives hasn’t dulled the relevance of William Goulding’s comment on civilization. In fact, in this age of digital bullying, it’s even more important for teenagers to talk about what is right and wrong. Do you join in so you feel safe within the group that has the power? Do you do nothing and is that almost as bad? Or do you stand up against something you believe is wrong but do so knowing this may well put a target on your own back?

If you have any questions please contact Georgina Hewitt, Arts Administrator arts@wdsg.school.nz

Annual Cake Art Competition and Auction

posted 2 Mar 2020, 18:05 by Georgina Hewitt [ updated 3 Mar 2020, 17:30 ]

Cake Art Competition and Auction!
This Thursday in PMC.

Decorate your cake or cupcake in any of the 3 categories and bring it to the PMC Kitchen before school. Fill in the entry form and you will get House points. Forms will be available in the morning or you can print out your own from the bottom of this page.

At lunchtime these cakes will be auctioned off raising money for our school charity, so put your money together with some friends and have cake for Lunch - or with your form class and have cake during extended form time!

A slideshow of last years entries can be found here

| Attachments: Cake Art Forms 2020.pdf

Arts Extra Curricular Sign ups now LIVE!

posted 28 Jan 2020, 17:54 by Georgina Hewitt [ updated 30 Jan 2020, 14:58 ]

The Arts and Cultural Registrations are now live, please fill out the below form.
Please sign up while looking at the Updated Co-Curricular Guide.
Students will need to sign in using their WDSG email address.

Instrument and Performance Lessons use a different hard copy form, which is available from Student Services (or see PDF below)

If you have any questions please contact ghewitt@wdsg.school.nz

2020 Arts Sign-up Form

For Sports Sign up, please go to the Sports page here

| Attachments: 2020 arts intake performance enrolement form.pdf

Y8 Arts Information

posted 14 Nov 2019, 18:38 by Georgina Hewitt

Thank you to those who chatted to the Arts team today. It was lovely to meet you.
There was quite a lot of information today, so here is a summary of all the information with a few links

Information on the 2020 Production and Auditions can be found here
Information on the auditions for the 2020 Bel Suono Choir are here
A copy of the overview of the Arts at Dio is here
A copy of the Performance Enrolement form is here
A copy of the 2019 extra curricular guide is here as a reference, an updated copy for 2020 will be sent to you as soon as it is completed.

If you have any questions, please email ghewitt@wdsg.school.nz

Arts Awards 2019

posted 28 Oct 2019, 17:47 by Georgina Hewitt [ updated 28 Oct 2019, 17:49 ]

Thank you to everyone who attended the Arts Awards evening on Thursday 24 October 2019

Special thank you to our guest speakers Vienna and Taaniko Nordstrom from Soliders Rd Portraits

A warm welcome to our 6th Inductee into the Arts Hall of Fame, Hannah McFarlane.

Photos from the evening can be found here

A full list of winners is as follows:

Main Menu

Arts Menu