The atmosphere in Swan’s Maali Mia Theatre was electric as students and their proud parents prepared for a language extravaganza at the finals of the 2nd Annual Interschool SCEAVision Performing Arts competition.
Inspired by the Eurovision Song Contest, the origin of this event can be traced back to Mundaring Christian College’s language teacher, Mrs Linda Jones, who introduced the idea of foreign language karaoke to her students.
Once the language teachers at the other schools heard of it, the idea of a contest celebrating the cultural backgrounds represented by all of our SCEA schools quickly grew wings, resulting in the inaugural competition in 2014 that saw 23 students performing in eight different languages.
This year competition was extra fierce as 33 performers battled it out during 27 performances in 13 different languages. From dramatic readings in French, to Aboriginal gospel songs, YMCA performed in Minion language to nursery rhymes in Afrikaans and Japanese, the students excelled and had a great time as they performed in front of a highly entertained and multicultural audience.
New languages this year included Hindi, Burmese, Aboriginal, Maori, Auslan and Greek and many students chose Christian items. Staff and students from Geographe Grammar School gave a special performance, playing traditional instruments and singing in Indonesian.
After much deliberation, the following winners were announced:
Year 1-3: Winner Megan van der Walt from Beechboro Christian school, who sang ‘Jesus is die beste’ in Afrikaans.
Runner-Up: Valentina Caminita from Southern Hills Christian College, for signing ‘Brilla, brilla La Stellina’ in Italian.
Year 4-6: Winner Abigail le Count, Tanika Cambell, Oore Obisesan from Ellenbrook Christian College for performing a French dramatic reading of ‘Les Trois Petits Cochons’.
Runner-Up: Johann de Boer from Kalamunda Christian School who performed ‘Loslappie’ in Afrikaans.
Year 7-12: Winner John Saxon from Swan Christian College for an enthralling performance of ‘Opa’ in Greek.
Runner-Up: Emma Screen from Mundaring Christian College for singing “twinkle twinkle’ in Japanese.
Huge congratulations to all the participants and finalists and a special thank you to the Language teachers and staff involved for creating such a spectacular event to celebrate the wonderful diversity and quality of the language programs within our schools.
