What is Wakakirri?
Wakakirri is an Australian national story sharing festival. It is Australia’s largest Performing Arts event for schools, involving over 20,000 students every year! Wakakirri is an Aboriginal word meaning ‘to dance’.
Since 2010, Pearcedale Primary School has entered in the Story Dance category of Wakakirri!
What is a Story Dance?
A Wakakirri Story Dance is a 3 – 7 minute performance by a group of 120 Grade 5 and 6 students using a combination of dancing, acting and creative movement to pre-recorded music. Schools can tell any story and can also use props, costumes and sets.
Achievements
Since Pearcedale Primary School starting competing in Wakakirri in 2010, they have received numerous story and sustainability awards including;
1st Place in Victoria – Story Dance Division 2 (2010)
1st Place in Victoria – Story Dance Division 1 (2012)
1st Place in Australia – National Story Dance Champions (2012)
2nd Place in Victoria – Story Dance Division 1 (2013)
Watch our award winning production from 2012 here!! https://vimeo.com/52055080
Previous PPS Story Dance themes:
2010 – The Plight of the Southern Bettong
2011 – Language Lessons for Life
2012 – The Last Dance (Story of the Dancing Bears of India)
2013 – The Great Bake Off!
2014 – The Story of Michael Collins
2015 – Orca (Story of a killer whale in captivity)
Wakakirri in 2016
This year, Pearcedale Primary School will be highlighting the story of Orangutans who are affected by palm oil plantations.
On Friday 18th March, the Wakakirri students were lucky enough to have a guest speaker come along to talk to them. Michelle, from the Orangutan Foundation International Australia, came to chat about her experiences as a volunteer in Indonesia, working with the orangutans at the Rehabilitation Centres who have been affected by palm oil plantations. Her stories were fascinating, as were her photos and videos of the cheeky orangutans. The students asked excellent questions and gained lots of important background information into our 2016 Wakakirri theme.
Our students are so enthusiastic to get started in learning all things orangutan, to start learning the choreography and to start making a change in the world!
This is Michelle from the Orangutan Foundation talking to the Wakakirri students
Students (trees and Orangutans) rehearsing for Wakakirri.