The final national winners for ShowQuest were announced this week. SQ is the new platform for New Zealand’s new music, dance and drama showcase for schools. Havelock North took the top spot at the Showquest national final with ‘The Circus’. National awards were also scooped up by two local Nelson schools. Waimea took second place for their piece ‘Distorted Images’, themed around body image. And Garin College received the production award for “Bittersweet”, centered around Bible scripture verse Heb 12 (to stay on the path).
A dynamic piece of Garin’s production was forest video images and a new original song by Tegan Nott. A song composed directly for the ShowQuest piece. Reported in the NZ Herald this week, event judge Jackie Clarke said she found the school performances thoroughly engaging. “There is no better feeling, and there is no more healing and positive energy you can bring to the world then actually putting on a show, communicating ideas, feelings, emotions, and aspirations, and sharing that with your community,” Matt Ealand from the Rockquest Promotions Auckland office, and the director of the programme, said that participating in Showquest is about more than just the performance on the day.
“Showquest is structured on a competitive framework, but the driving rationale, as with all the Rockquest Promotions’ events, is to encourage participation, creative growth and team work,” he says. “We find that if we are able to provide a platform where students can express themselves on their own terms within the boundaries of the event, the rewards go far beyond the rush of performing on the day.”
Kim Pope from Garin College “Its the magical result of a huge team effort” The national final was judged from a pool of regional first and second place winners, and awarded by a panel of expert judges. Teams were judged overall on their performance, soundtrack, costuming, choreography and theme.
