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RECENT EVENTS
2008 NT Project
In collaboration with YouthWorX NT, Girls from Oz sent a team of four to the Northern Territory in May to sing and dance with children in schools across the state. The team consisted of Kylie Lee-Archer, Claire Birbeck, Sally Gawley and Bridie Cavanagh. The pilot project focused on youth living in geographically isolated locations in the ‘top end’ of Australia, and reached more than 400 participants across 4 schools in 5 days. |
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Learning clapping breaks from Samoa |
Girls from Oz travelled to schools in Darwin, Batchelor, Katherine and Nhulunbuy working with youth aged 8 – 18. Participants came from diverse backgrounds and different areas, ranging from the rural town of 700 in Batchelor, to urban Darwin with a population of 114,000! |
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| Dancing up a storm in Nhulunbuy — even the boys got into Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’! | |
| Working with youth who brought such varied life experience and talent was challenging and rewarding, and the Girls from Oz staff were inspired by the young people they met in every school. | |
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Qantas Girls from Oz Tour to Regional Queensland 2007
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Upwards of 3000 children ranging in age from 5 to 18 were involved in the song and dance workshops and performances. Many of these children participated in an item in the public performance with the AGC girls and received rousing applause from their home town crowd. A particular highlight was the Longreach School of Distance Education performance and workshop during which the girls sang with children from across 400,000 square kilometres – the isolation of the children was striking as little solo voices joined in across telephone lines. The Australian Girls Choir is aiming to establish ongoing relationships with the schools and teachers they visited in an effort to support the development of performing arts activities in regional areas.
“You girls are really good and are an inspiration to me”
Kacey Cusak (age 17) Emerald
The performance programme featured choreographed items including Puttin’ on the Ritz, I’ve Got the Music In Me and a medley from Grease, along with a jazz standard, a rousing gospel number and African, Spanish, French and Latin pieces. The Australiana element was very popular with all audiences; there were peals of laughter in the Old Man Emu item and tears in both I am Australian and the Qantas anthem I Still Call Australia Home. A documentary team joined the Girls from Oz on tour and gathered some fantastic footage including the performance under the wing of the 747 at the Qantas Founder’s Museum in Longreach attended by the Governor of Queensland and featuring an incredible lightning storm.
Tour highlights were shown on Qantas Inflight Entertainment.
"The girls have enriched my life and touched the members of our community here tonight. You are an absolute credit to yourselves, your parents and mentors and to this great nation of ours, Australia. May you continue to bring joy and appreciation to the world in the future. You will always have a special place in our hearts."
Mayor Patrick Tanks, Longreach
On return from the tour Managing Director of the Australian Girls Choir, Nicole Muir, said “The tour was a wonderful creative partnership between the Australian Girls Choir, Qantas, QantasLink and town councils, which enabled a group of young performers from the city to get a taste of life in regional Australia and saw them entertain, inspire and connect with thousands of people with limited access to the arts.”
“Thank you for the wonderful opportunity that I was given to travel on the first ever GFO tour; it was a truly memorable experience that definitely opened my eyes to the country I live in. I never realised just how big Australia actually is! I really enjoyed being able to travel to so many remote communities and please audiences of all ages. It was so rewarding for us girls to be told by complete strangers how much they appreciated us and some even said we had “Made their year”. ”
Hannah King Brisbane chapter – Australian Girls Choir
“Thank you to everyone for including Emerald in your regional tour. The whole community has benefited, from the workshops to the magnificent performance. The choir's visit will have a lasting impression on the young people you came in contact with - Please come again!”
Charlotte Divall – Emerald Shire Council
Holiday Programme Chiang Mai - Thailand
July 2007
The first international project for Girls from Oz was a three week Performing Arts Holiday Programme hosted by the American Pacific International School in Chiang Mai in July 2007. The programme was run by two staff members and Alumni of the Australian Girls Choir, Kylie Lee-Archer and Claire Birbeck, who with a team of 6 staff from all over the world sang, danced and played with 24 participants aged 7 – 17; they also taught bi-weekly sessions at the local kindergarten of forty-five 2 – 6 year olds.
As well as their broad age range, the 24 residential student participants came from a variety of backgrounds, had varying levels of spoken English ability (from no spoken English to first-language fluency), and different experiences of the Performing Arts. Claire and Kylie led the students in daily Performing Arts sessions, as well as games nights, talent shows and disco parties! The performance outcome of the camp was a one hour concert that the students prepared throughout the three weeks. As well as the Performing Arts focussed sessions, Claire and Kylie participated in all aspects of “camp life” including excursions, activities, meal and bed-times and “hanging out”. We hope that this will be the first of many international projects that the Girls from Oz will undertake.
"I like every songs that you teach me. I also like dancing because it’s fun. I’m so happy and I have a chance to do a new thing. I feel more comfortable to speak in front of people."
Luknam (11 year old Workshop Participant Thailand)
