A Melville High student is one of more than 5700 kids who will be blasted across our TV screens as part of the 2017 Schools Spectacular.
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North Coast and Mid North Coast students who starred in the triumph of the 2017 Schools Spectacular performance are set to shine again. This time they will delight upwards of a million viewers as their amazing performances are beamed across Australia on the Seven Network in the primetime slot of 7:00pm on Saturday, 16 December.
The Schools Spectacular show was held on November 24 and 25 at the Sydney Qudos Bank Arena and featured dance groups, choirs and orchestras from public schools right across NSW. The explosive show was filmed by 15 cameras with the final TV edition set to wow viewers next weekend. The telecast of the whole show will offer unparalleled appreciation of the enormous talents of the more than 5700 stars of the show.
One of those stars is Melville High School student Jiminum (Jim) Stirling-Kelly. Jim prepared for the show with the Bangarra Dance Company and performed as part of the largest-ever Aboriginal dance ensemble. The segment Mr Kelly performed in is the biggest-ever Schools Spectacular segment titled ‘A Moment to Unite’. It’s been a three-year road to success for Jim, who began perfecting his skills on a pile of dusty, old camping mattresses back in 2014.
“I looked out of the window to see him executing amazing acrobatic feats, he told me that he had watched YouTube tutorials and decided to just give it a go,” Jim’s mother Roanne Stirling-Kelly told the Argus.
Jim enrolled in the Danae Cantwell School of Dance in 2015 where he began to grow his talent and polish his dance techniques.
Then came the most gruelling audition process of his young dancing career. On March 17 this year, Jim went up against 60 other students to compete for spot in the NSW Public Schools Aboriginal Dance Company.
After being shortlisted with four other applicants, Jim finally received his acceptance letter into the NSW Public Schools Aboriginal Dance Company. In preparation for Schools Spectacular, Jim attended a further two week’s rehearsal in Sydney joined by Aboriginal students from across 35 NSW schools to perform a hip hop piece based on ‘unity’.
Other North Coast and Mid North Coast schools who made the School Spectacular performances such a success included: Aldavilla Public; Banora Point High; Bellingen High; Casino Public; Coorabell Public; Forster Public; Gloucester Public; Grafton High; Great Lakes College Senior Campus; Kingscliff High; Kingscliff Public; Maclean High; Melville High; Murwillumbah High; South Grafton High; Tweed River High; Urunga Public; Wauchope Public.
“It really is a must-see,” said creative director of Schools Spectacular Sonja Sjolander.