Arts News Term 3, Week 2 2026

Term 3 offers another busy but fun term ahead with lots of Co-curricular arts events. 

The Arts photos have captured the many groups offered at SMC and will be presented in the Yearbook at the end of the year. 

NZ Playhouse paid the Juniors a visit, offering their rendition of Puss in Gum Boots today, so hopefully Junior student parents will hear all about it. 

Dance NZmade will include our Senior Dance company and a handful of middle school dancers and the ever popular Dance Showcase looms large, incorporating over a hundred talented dancers exhibiting a range of styles. 

Our musical girls will be as busy as ever; the Jazz band will participate in Blenheim’s annual Jazz festival Southern Jam, the Chamber choir goes on a Choral Tour with the Sisters of the Church around the South Island, the Middle School will attend the Encore festival and the Music Showcase and Christchurch Music Festival take place towards the end of term. The annual debate between Christ’s College and SMC will also take place in the final week. Watch this space for more details throughout the term.

DRAMA

From X factor to cute factor!

The Year 9 Drama class performed Lip Sync Battles to our preschool audience, who then got to decide who the winners were. It was a lovely opportunity for our girls to connect with their little sisters and brothers.

MUSIC

Jazz Band travels to Southern Jam

11 students from the Jazz Band will be appearing in the Southern Jam festival next month. They will travel to Blenheim, listen to other school jazz and big bands around the motu, and compete in front of industry professionals, directed by band leader Richie Pickard. 

The week will offer a range of masterclasses and workshops with leading specialists, as well as public performances at restaurants, cafés, retirement villages and schools. Southern Jam is always a highlight for many of our students and the week culminates with a public evening gala performance. We look forward to hearing all about it.

We held an itinerant concert on the penultimate day of last term and we were treated to singers, violinists and pianists. Some students were as young as Yr 1 and performing for the very first time. Abigail (Yr 1) performed on a tiny 1/8 size violin, which delighted the audience.

There will be another itinerant concert during Term 3. Watch this space for more details.

DANCE

Dance NZmade 

We are incredibly excited to share that our Senior Dance Company and 4 Middle School dancers will be participating in the upcoming Dance NZmade competition - Seniors in the troupe section and Middle School in the solo and duo section. This is a fantastic, action-packed, whole-day event on Sunday 2 August. Our dancers will spend the day learning from industry professionals in specialised workshops, and the day will culminate with the Senior Dance Company competing with our troupe number. 

There will be a show to celebrate their achievements on Monday 3rd August at the Christchurch Town Hall. This will involve only the Senior Troupe.

Tickets are available from NZDanceMade

DANCE SHOWCASE

Our very popular and ever successful Dance Showcase will be taking place at the end of Week 4. This is when our many talented dancers from all ages, Junior-Senior, will present a dazzling array of dance styles. There will be a $5 koha door entry. 

CELEBRATIONS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

Do you have anything to share with us - a recent achievement that we can celebrate? We would love to acknowledge this, but we can’t if we don’t know about it. Share, share, share!

Over the holidays, a number of SMC students competed in the Christchurch Speech and Drama Competitions, with some resounding success. Competitors present poetry recitations,speeches, dramatic extracts, prose extracts and improvisations across various categories, pitting their oratory skills against others from all over Canterbury. Nine SMC students made it to prizegiving, where trophies, special awards and monetary prizes are awarded: Maddie Coughlan, Jolin Ye, Ruby Ballantyne, Grace Davis, Caitlin Ching, Julia Nguyen, Nari Yoon, Gurbani Gill and Abigail Nguyen. Special mention must be made of Maddie Coughlan, a competition stalwart, who won not one, but four trophies, setting a great example for our younger competitors!

Rose Martin and Matilda Abbott took part in the Christchurch Vocal Competitions, with many competitors in the age group 15-18 years. Well done to both girls who achieved:

Rose:1st place Own Choice song, 1st place Foreign language art song, 1st place English art song, 2nd place Mounsley Memorial, 3rd place Musical theatre in character and 2nd place profiling a NZ composer. She has a couple of trophies as a result! 

Tilly:

Open to anyone at Secondary School (two songs) - 1st Place

Secondary School Novice Class - 1st Place

Musical Theatre Song in Character - 2nd Place 

English Art Song - 2nd Place

Foreign Language Art Song - 2nd Place

OPPORTUNITIES

Enchanting Production’s latest show is on at the end of next week: 

Children of Eden Jr with divine music by Stephen Schwartz (of Wicked and Godspell fame).  The show is about Genesis 1-9 (Adam and Eve, the snake, Cain and Abel, Noah's family and the ark) with a fantastically talented under 20-aged cast. This is a story about family, consequences, love and animals.

Go and support Mia Hearne and Louisa Thomsen (Year 9) who play the snake, plus soloists.

Dates: Thursday 30th July 7.30pm, Friday 31st July 7.30pm, Saturday 1st August 2pm and 7.30pm (Running time: under 90 mins, including an interval)

Venue: Papa Hou Theatre, 4 Rolleston Ave (opposite the Botanic Gardens)

More info and tickets: Children Of Eden

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY:

Dance NZmade - 2-3 Aug 

Southern Jam - 5-9 August

Dance Showcase - 15 Aug

Sisters of the Church Choral tour - 31 Aug- 5 Sep

Encore - 9 Sep

Music Showcase - 17 Sep