A group of 40 Dunstan High School students travelled to Invercargill last Friday (May 26) to perform along with eight other schools from the Otago region. 

ShowQuest is a performance arts platform for years 1-13 students from across New Zealand. 

Art, music, dance, drama, culture and technology are all showcased in eight-minute performances.

Dunstan is no stranger to winning awards at ShowQuest; last year the school placed third overall and won best lighting and choreography. 

This year, Dunstan came away with best theme, highly commended lighting, and the ZM soundtrack award. 

Participants support one of their team in the air

Senior students Rose Wearing and Starla Hubber were in charge of the mammoth task of brainstorming and choreographing the performance.

“I have danced for 13 years of my life,” Rosie said. 

“Ballet is my strong point. My background in dance really helped with the choreography, just being able to tell what was going to look good with a large group of students and making sure our choreography was effective.” 

Dancers perform for the audience

The theme of Dunstan’s performance was support networks.  

“We wanted to explore and show that support is all around you in all different forms such as teachers, friends, family and helplines,” Rose said. 

“We chose it because everyone needs support throughout their life, especially at high school age.” 

Rose said she was proud of the whole performance. 

“Everyone contributed and for a small school Dunstan did well.” 

The choreography had the large group of students working together