By Jonty Ralphsmith
Students from Dandenong Primary School will be part of a six-month, $40,000 performing arts workshop program delivered by St Martins Youth Arts Centre in Prahran.
Dandenong Primary has developed a strong relationship with St Martins across six years, with 20 of the approximately 35 students in the ‘Gene Tree: Listen. Now. Again performance from the school.
Students from culturally and linguistically diverse and lower socioeconomic background are given an opportunity to develop in a warm and fun environment.
“The children’s literacy and confidence is growing exponentially,” St Martins artistic director and chief executive, Nadja Kostich said.
“The foundational literacy – reading and speaking – social literacy, creating artistic literacy is really improving which, in our conversations with the teachers and principals, has told us they are better equipped to deal with life.
“They are able to take responsibility for themselves and remain confident in a variety of situations and support each other to reach a goal so it is very much about community building as well so they become more literate and competent community members and in their own selves, they have fun.
“They’re supported so we reflect back their positive qualities it is a very encouraging environment.”
St Martins’ will engage with diverse young people from across Melbourne, including primarily Dandenong, who will collaboratively create a series of public interactions in the Royal Botanic Gardens.
“It’s about their connection with nature and it is about them taking the audience on an adventure through the gardens to share that connection and to examine their own connection with nature.
“In this tipping point on this planet when we ask ourselves how well we are looking after our planet and what we need, so the young people in Dandenong in collaboration with the rest of the cast have approached the care for our planet in this way. “
More than 70 per cent of the children from Dandenong Primary School speak languages other than English at home, with half of those being from refugee backgrounds.
Almost all are from lower socio-economic brackets and around 25 per cent of children in the programs have additional needs.
The funding will allow equitable access to engage the young people over an intense six-month period of twice weekly workshops at St Martins/RBG and Dandenong Primary School; four all day workshops; and six public interactions with live audiences in the Royal Botanic Gardens.
The performance opens on 4 November in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne.
For booking details, keep an eye on the St Martins, Dandenong Primary and Royal Botanic Gardens Websites.
