Massed dance

Applications are now open for schools to nominate to be part of the massed dance cast.

Please complete the Pulse Alive 2025 – massed dance nomination form by Monday 23 September (Term 3 Week 10).

To ensure the ongoing viability of the show, the Pulse Alive team introduced some changes to the nomination process for the 2024 event which remain in place for 2025:

• Submission of the online nomination form commits your school to paying the student resource fee ($52 per student), whether or not you end up participating in the event. All schools who apply will be given access to the choreography and choral music resources, as well as provided with a t-shirt for each student who applies. It will not be possible to issue any refunds if students or schools withdraw after the closing date of the online nomination form.
• The t-shirt order will form part of the nomination process – please ascertain your students' t-shirt sizes prior to submitting the nomination form. There may be limited opportunity for size swaps in early 2025 to accommodate changes in the make-up of your participating group.
• To assist in this process, the Permission to publish and participate form for Pulse Alive 2025 is now available – this will enable you to send information out to your students so you can confirm numbers prior to submitting your online nomination form. These forms should be kept on file at your school and not returned to The Arts Unit.

Thank you in advance for your understanding around these changes. They have been put in place to ensure that Pulse Alive is able to continue providing these opportunities for equity and excellence in arts education well into the future.

Dates: See below for specific rehearsal options.
Time: 8:30 am – 3:15 pm
Venue: Netball Central – 2 Olympic Boulevard, Sydney Olympic Park

• All schools involved in massed dance must attend a full day preliminary rehearsal in the weeks prior to Pulse Alive 2025.
• As part of the nomination process, schools will be able to preference which cast they are part of and, therefore, which rehearsal they attend. Please see below for specific rehearsal options.
• Confirmed rehearsal dates will be communicated to schools on acceptance into the show in early Term 4.
• Each school will only be required to participate in one preliminary rehearsal per category they have applied for. 
• Schools are expected to attend their preliminary rehearsal in person.  
• Schools will be required to attend their preliminary rehearsal for the full day. Transport arrangements must be made to ensure schools arrive before the start of the rehearsal and are able to stay all the way through until the end of the rehearsal.
• Provision will be made for schools more than 2 hours travel time from Sydney Olympic Park participating in massed dance to attend preliminary rehearsals virtually if required.

Teachers will be able to indicate their preferred rehearsal and performance dates as part of the nomination process.

• Performance day includes a compulsory final rehearsal, venue rehearsal and performance.
• Schools should expect to be in attendance from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm on their performance day. Final schedule details will be communicated in early Term 1 2025.
• All schools must attend these compulsory rehearsals in person.

The costume for all massed dance items will be as follows:

• Coloured Pulse Alive t-shirt – this is the show t-shirt that is included within your student resource fee and will be a different colour depending on which item your school has been allocated.
• Long black tights/pants – supplied by students. We are pretty flexible on what these are, as long as they are preferably full length. 
• White socks – supplied by students.
• White shoes with white soles – supplied by students. See photos for examples.

Any white shoes are fine as long as they also have white soles (this is so we don’t damage the flooring that we will be dancing on). It is fine if the top of the shoes have small sections that aren’t white – as long as white is the dominant colour). White shoes are available at a low cost from stores like Kmart and Big W.

As with previous years, an optional hoodie will be made available for ordering for students and staff that wish to do so. This information will be distributed in early Term 4.

Primary massed dance

Hair

• Students with longer hair: High slicked ponytail with no hair on the face. Ponytail should be styled ie straightened, curled, etc
• Students with shorter hair: Neat, styled hair off the face
• Optional: coloured accessories to match colour of Pulse Alive t-shirt ie hair ties, glitter, ribbon, bows, gems, etc
• See the hair tutorial section below for further guidance on appropriate hair styles.

Make-up

• No make-up is required for students in primary massed dance

Secondary massed dance

Hair

• Students with longer hair: High slicked ponytail with no hair on the face. Ponytail should be styled ie straightened, curled, etc
• Students with shorter hair: Neat, styled hair off the face
• Optional: coloured accessories to match colour of Pulse Alive t-shirt ie hair ties, glitter, ribbon, bows, gems, etc
• See the hair tutorial section below for further guidance on appropriate hair styles.

Make-up

• Make-up is optional. Should you wish for your students to wear it, please consider the following as a guide:
  • Base: stage makeup ie foundation, bronzer,
  • Additions: blush, brown/bronze toned eyeshadow, black eyeliner, black mascara and red lipstick

Hair tutorial

Students with longer hair

High, slicked ponytail tied tightly on the crown of the head

It is suggested you use:

• A small amount of water to smooth the hair and flatten any flyaway hairs (no hair to be on faces including fringes)
• Apply a small amount of gel and comb through the scalp, styling hair up into the high ponytail
• Secure the ponytail with a minimum of 2 hair ties that match the colour of the hair or are clear
• Spray into place with hairspray and secure any hair if needed with bobby pins

Students with shorter hair

Neatly combed and gelled hair

It is suggested you use:

• A small amount of water to smooth the hair and flatten any flyaway hairs (no hair to be on faces including fringes)
• Apply a small amount of gel then comb and style

There will be a resource fee of $52 per student. 

The resource fee assists with the costs involved in the conductors, choreographers and tutors working with the students, supports a number of music copyright costs and the creation of teaching resources and includes a Pulse Alive t-shirt, which will be worn by all performers as their costume during the event.

For school groups participating in massed choir, the resource fee will be direct debited in late Term 4, based on the number of students applied for during the nomination process. It will not be possible to issue any refunds if students or schools withdraw after the closing date of the online nomination form.

Third-party content attributions

Pulse Alive images, photographer: Anna Warr