HSC dance exam preparation

JOANNE KING: The dance team at the Arts Unit of the NSW Department of Education have produced this podcast as part of the 'Listen at The Arts Unit' series. This podcast is produced on Gadigal and Cadigal land of the Eora nation. We pay our respect to the Traditional Custodians of the land, with further acknowledgment of the many lands this podcast will be listened to across Australia.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, storytelling, music and dance, along with the people, hold the memories of Australia's traditions, culture and hopes. Let us also acknowledge any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders and people in our presence today who guide us with their wisdom.

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ANNOUNCER: Listen @ The Arts Unit.

REBECCA HOLMES: Hi, my name is Rebecca Holmes. I'm the supervisor of marking for HSC Dance Practical, and we are lucky enough today to be creating a resource for you with a bit of an insight into how students can prepare for the HSC Dance examination, today specifically focusing on Composition, Performance and Major Performance for you.

And we're lucky enough, today, to have our 3 graduates from the class of 2023 who are going to chat to us regarding some insights, some tips and tricks, and their advice that they can provide for incoming HSC Dance students. So it's going to be a wealth of experience, and I'm excited to chat and find out more about these students. So I would like to hand it over to Ivy, Tessa and Eva.

IVY SIMPSON: Hey, I'm Ivy Simpson. I attended Kooringal High School, and then I studied dance as a subject at Wagga Wagga High School.

TESSA ROMANIN: Hi, I'm Tessa Romanin. I studied at Mosman High School.

EVA NEVILLE: Hi, I'm Eva Neville. I went to Newtown High School of the Performing Arts.

REBECCA HOLMES: Thanks, girls. It's great to have you here today and have a chat and just give some students greater insight for the HSC Dance exams. As being a dance teacher, we've all got a love of dance and a passion for it, so it's really interesting to see your decisions and choices made regarding your examinations.

So firstly, I'd like to talk with Ivy Simpson regarding your Major Performance. Now, my question to you is, because Major Performance has an interpretation to it, so worth 40%, how do you draw on the interpretation of your work to enhance your performance quality?

IVY SIMPSON: I think it's really important, when you get asked this question in an interview, to focus on 2 specific qualities that you've used in your dance. So specifically for me, in my Major Performance, it was my focus and the use of dynamics. So in my interview, I would talk about how this has enhanced my interpretation, and then link it to how it's enhanced my performance quality.

So for example, a section in my dance, I focus to a specific corner. And in my interview, I would talk about how I use my body and my alignment to further communicate that focus, and then how that also achieves performance quality.

And then, for example, I'd talk about dynamics and break it down into the dot points of a percussive dynamic or a sustained dynamic, and again, how that achieves a clear interpretation for the examiners and the audience.

REBECCA HOLMES: So your title of your Major Performance was 'Spirits'. So can you elaborate a little bit more about your interpretation?

IVY SIMPSON: Yeah, so 'Spirits' was a very special piece. And it was about my great grandmother's story, and she was a part of the stolen generation. So she got taken away from her family and put into an all-girls home in Cootamundra. And I wanted to do a fusion of indigenous culture and contemporary dance for my Major Study.

So using that interpretation and that intent helped me kind of connect to that piece a bit more, which I thought was really special. And then through my whole piece of my Major Study, I explore what it feels like to be taken away from your family-- that intense emotion and not wanting to be there at the time, and trying to get away from the bad people.

And then I also-- within my piece-- explore, in the second and third section, the importance of culture and the importance of spirit. And that was something that I bring to my dance piece that helped communicate my intent, again, clearly. And I think that kind of pushed me over the edge to get that Band 6, just having that connection and not just doing steps-- actually dancing and telling a story.

REBECCA HOLMES: Yes, because our syllabus is Dance as an art form, so you're actually really giving us a clear interpretation. So you spoke about talking about-- in the interview. Now, it is 9 minutes. Initially, it's a long time for someone, having to talk for 9 minutes. Did it actually go quite fast for you?

IVY SIMPSON: I'm trying to think about what actually happened [laughs] in that because it was all a blur. It did go fast. But then you feel like you're kind of repeating yourself over and over again. But I guess that's for the good because the examiners are only seeing you once. Maybe they didn't hear what you said in the first place. But overall, I think, reflecting, it went like, it felt like, for 5 minutes, probably.

REBECCA HOLMES: Good because we're-- as markers, they're trying to ascertain your level of understanding of your applied knowledge on the dance, and then what you actually communicate to us verbally as well. So that's good. Thank you very much for that, Ivy. Good insight into Major Performance and how the interview is very valuable. Yeah. Now moving on to Tessa. You are nominated for Callback for a Core Performance.

TESSA ROMANIN: Yeah.

REBECCA HOLMES: So my question to you is, what additional training did you engage in to support your preparation for the HSC?

TESSA ROMANIN: Well, in this course, it's really important to know your own body and your limitations and your strengths and weaknesses as a dancer. And in addition to classes I took each week, I would do Pilates and strengthening exercises at home, focusing on the muscles I need to strengthen that would help best improve my technique.

REBECCA HOLMES: OK. And because we're working throughout the year and Major Performance takes up so much time, how much time did you commit to Core Performance and continually rehearse Core Performance?

TESSA ROMANIN: Well, at my school, we learned our Core Performance first, and we finished it halfwayish, end of Term 1 of Year 12. After I learnt it all, I'd make sure I practised it at least 3 times a week in my own time, and also recorded a video of myself to send in to my teacher just to get her feedback on it, just to make sure I was really staying up to date with the technique to be able to obtain the highest mark I could.

REBECCA HOLMES: And that sort of leads me into my next question of-- how important is communication with your teacher as a dancer in this course? Give me some tips and tricks to stay on top.

TESSA ROMANIN: Communication with your dance teacher is probably one of the most important things in this course because they know how to get you to whatever mark that you want to get to. So it's really important you listen to their feedback and you consistently talk with them in all aspects of the course, in all sections. And listen to their feedback, and work on it and apply it to help you obtain the best marks you can.

In the dance industry, it's really often for dancers to take feedback in a negative way, and we're often really hard on ourselves. And it's really important in this course to know that the advice and feedback you get from your teacher is positive, and it's constructive criticism. And you need to learn how to take that and apply it in a positive way with a positive mindset, in order to really improve and excel during this course.

My tips to staying on top of the course-- I would say a big one is to really know the syllabus and make notes under each dot point about what you're going to say, what your examples are. And when you're practising interviews with your friends or whoever, what I used to do is I used to highlight each dot point so I wouldn't repeat it-- the same question, same dot point over and over again, and I'd really get a variety across the syllabus.

REBECCA HOLMES: OK, great. Good tips. Was your Core Performance a dance that was choreographed for you as an individual dancer? Or was it a class work, which was personalised to your strengths and limitations?

TESSA ROMANIN: It was a class work, which I adapted to fit my own style and my own strengths and weaknesses. I mean, our class really danced quite similar-- like, our styles. And there were just little bits that we had different. My strong suit was leg extensions. So I had a few more added into my piece to suit me and to really show that technical aspect of my dancing.

I'm also a lefty, so I had to change lots of the stuff so I could actually do it on my good side, which was obviously different from the rest of my class.

REBECCA HOLMES: OK, thanks. I'm a lefty, too. We're OK. All right. Thank you for that, Tessa. So now moving on to Eva. Now, Eva has been nominated for Callback for her Core Composition. So before I ask a question, I'd like to know a little bit more about your Core Composition concept intent.

EVA NEVILLE: Yeah, so my Core Composition is based on a Greek goddess called Hera. She is the goddess of women, childbirth and marriage, but she's also like depicted as very vain, vindictive and imperious. So I wanted to include all of her essences, I guess, in my composition.

So I made mine a narrative. So I have 3 phrases. My first phrase is introducing her and her innocence as a goddess of women and childbirth. And then in my second phrase, she starts to represent, like, the vainness, and she becomes very angry, but she's trying to contain it. And then in the third phrase, she it's a sort of cathartic sense of release. She's just releasing all her anger.

REBECCA HOLMES: OK. So in knowing that, can you tell us a few things about how you've used the elements of dance to develop your motif for this concept intent?

EVA NEVILLE: So with mine, I mainly used elements of space because I wanted her to represent her growing power and release of anger. So I started a very small circular space in the beginning, and then she ends up using the whole space throughout the dance. And then also, with dynamics as well, that was really important with trying to do a simultaneous with the music, which was-- had very-- a lot of accents for the second and third phrase to represent this kind of anger and her struggle within herself. Yeah.

REBECCA HOLMES: OK. Now, with composition, you are the choreographer, and you have a dancer. So how important is it for you as the choreographer to communicate with your dancer and your dance teacher?

EVA NEVILLE: I think it's very important to communicate with your dancer, especially for the interview part. You need to focus on what you're going to talk about in the interview-- specific space or how-- and always link back to the concept intent, which your dancer needs to know so that they can represent it in the-- when they dance it because your interview is first before the dance.

And communication with your teacher is very important as well. I was lucky because I was quite a shy student. So my teacher forced us all to show us-- show the dance at different stages. That made me be able to get feedback and ensure that I'm not just using generic movements or if it's not showing the concept intent or making sure that I know why I picked this movement at this time, and why I manipulated it how I did.

REBECCA HOLMES: OK. So again, you've got the Composition interview. Composition interview is 6 minutes. Very different to Major Performance and the majors. So how important is for you to demonstrate to the markers during the exam what you're trying to communicate?

EVA NEVILLE: I think that's one of the most important things because everything needs to be linked back to the concept intent because that's the overall goal of composition is how you're interpreting the concept intent and how the audience is able to understand what's going on.

You should really know every single movement that you do because when you're doing motif into phrase, you really need to know why you picked this motif and why it's manipulated and what type of manipulations you use, like instrumentation, embellishment, or anything like that. You need to keep on saying that, and every time, link it back to the concept intent because the interviewer needs to know it.

REBECCA HOLMES: Absolutely. Good information. So ladies, thank you for your advice today. I have one last question for all of you. You've been through the HSC now. You have survived. And what tips and tricks would you give your former self starting off on your HSC journey?

IVY SIMPSON: I think, right now, reflecting upon it, it's just giving your creativity a space to flourish. You're not going to be told what's wrong or what's right. And you really have that opportunity, in HSC Dance, to explore that. And go gung-ho. Don't hold back.

Especially-- even in Core Performance. In Core Performance, you need to be able to just give it a red-hot shot what your teacher's giving you. It might not be your type of thing. But you teacher actually knows for the best, as much as you probably don't want to hear that. But they do know for the best and they know what they're saying. And that's probably one trick or tip that I could give you.

TESSA ROMANIN: What I would say is that-- well, obviously, teenagers tend to feel a lot of judgement from their peers. And especially with composition, people can feel self-conscious about the way that they move and their-- I guess-- style in dancing. And it's just really important to know that it doesn't matter what everyone else thinks. You're sitting the course. And if you want to do well, just dance like nobody's watching.

One of my dance teachers-- she always used to say, during comp, 'Don't think, just do.' So just-- doesn't matter who else is in the room. Just be you, and that will help you.

REBECCA HOLMES: Great advice.

EVA NEVILLE: I think the biggest thing for me was doing things early. Like, procrastination was really bad when I was doing my HSC. So I can't stress this enough. Start your composition and everything early, especially your theory work, because it really helps you towards the end when you're doing your interviews because you have so much other things going on you need to know everything. And you don't need to-- you can't keep studying and studying it because you have other subjects you have to focus on. So yeah, I think that's the biggest thing for me.

Also, talk to your teachers. As I said before, I was a very shy student. If I talk to my teachers-- they're there to help you. So I think that's a big thing as well.

REBECCA HOLMES: Another lot of good advice. So that concludes our little chat with our graduates of 2023 Callback. So thank you ladies.

ANNOUNCER: For more information on our programs, explore our website at artsunit.nsw.edu.au. Music licensed by Envato Elements. Copyright, (State of New South Wales Department of Education), 2024.