By Jonty Ralphsmith
Lyndale Secondary College hosted Wonthaggi Secondary College for a day of musical collaboration on Tuesday 5 April.
The 80 students from across the two schools had never met each other at the start of the day, but by the end they were well integrated and sung Pharrell Williams’ ‘Happy’.
Lyndale Performing Arts Director Steve Rault noted that while academia could move online, performing arts could not do so as easily, and therefore took a massive hit during the pandemic, giving cause for the collaboration.
“The initial idea was to try and get our students and students from another school to get together to do something fun in a safe and supportive way given pretty much everything has been cancelled and there has not been opportunities to do anything outside of strict and controlled environments,” Mr Rault said.
“It was also important to celebrate we’re still music lovers and we can still do great things together.”
The whole day was dedicated to the musical pursuits, to boost the students’ confidence and build a sense of community that may have been lost during the repeated lockdowns of 2020-21.
There was no pre-rehearsal with all the students’ performances at the end of the day based on what they had practiced and learned throughout the collaboration.
“Ultimately, the sentiment that was taken from the day was that we were all, staff and students alike, reminded about how in love with making music we are,” the Performing Arts Director said.
“It takes that intensity and sharing of the same feeling and goals and love for music to reignite and inspire your own passion so I think that was the intent but there was also a euphoric feeling at the conclusion of the performance and they all went ‘wow, I’m so glad we did this’.”
