Not necessarily small, but definitely mighty. They are the team from Inverell High School who spent the last week performing in Schools Spectacular, and making an indelible mark on the event.
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“They played the featured video High performer, and we were telling the girls around us, ‘That’s our school!’ It’s really pumped,” singer and dancer Ashleigh Campbell said.
The 21 Inverell High School performers were represented in more ensembles than any other NSW school.
Their talents were showcased as featured artists, the D’Arts disability dance ensemble, Aboriginal dance ensemble, featured artists group and combined dance ensemble.
“It was amazing. It was like the best experience I’ve ever had in my life, because it’s so much fun, meeting everyone together, and all dancing together,” first time participant Makayla Hobday said.
“You just meet so many people, and the adrenaline – so good.” She said among the 5322 performers at the new Spectacular venue, Sydney’s Qudos Park Arena, often with thousands on stage at any one time, it was sometimes hard to know exactly where you were.
“The only real hard bit is finding your place and stuff, because there’s so many other students there,” Makayla said.
All of the students joined the Guinness Book of Records-achieving event for the largest Amateur Variety Act rehearsal with 5322 performers taking part on Friday, November 25. The Inverell students said the numbers were overwhelming. “There were 1800 kids in my change room alone,” performer Teagan McLachlan said.
Dancer Olivia Fowke has been to Schools Spec for four years, and said the new venue allowed so many more students to be involved. “It was a lot bigger – like everything was just on a mass scale,” she said.
Emi Campbell has been watching her sister Ashleigh from the audience for a few years, but this time, the year 10 student was part of the D’Arts ensemble.
The two were featured in a special video made as a promotional piece for the event. Emi said she enjoyed the time spent rehearsing and performing with about 300 other dancers.
“It was really amazing, and it’s been fun to shake your bootie!” Emi said with a laugh. “I thought it was good to dance with my sister.”
Ashleigh was one of the featured artists and backing vocalist this year, and though she admitted some nerves, she said she used that energy empower her performances.
She said the moment reality hit was when they faced the countdown to the first school performance, and as the numbers fell, from 10 to one, the audience erupted.
“The applause after that, the roar, it was just literally a roar of all the children, and that was like, ‘Wow, this is actually happening now,” she said.