On Monday 28^th March a team of 120 pupils, staff and friends travelled to the Waterfront Hall, Belfast to compete in the

2011 Be Your Best Foundation Rock Challenge Event.

The competition runs all day and schools get to interact with each other and watch rehearsals, then the evening  show

commences. We had huge support this year from staff, parents and friends of the school. Two members of our

Dance Drama Development Committee, Mrs Rock and Mrs McAleese arranged a bus to transport our supporters to the venue.  

Rock Challenge begins in school in November, there are often a large number of pupils involved and the creative process of

putting a piece together takes a long time, lots of hard work and dedication from staff and pupils. The team had been rehearsing

after school and on Saturday afternoons for months before the competition.

When we arrived at the Waterfront Hall the atmosphere was electric as usual. The other schools involed were:Ashfield Girls’

High School, Belfast Model School for Girls, St Louise’s Comprehensive, Little Flower Girls School and Newtownbreda High
School. All of the teams had worked hard and a wealth of talent was clear to see. Some of the sets and staging were of

a high standard and the choreogrpahy was all very creative. Cambridge House were a popular choice with the other

schools who were all seated in the auditorium to watch the reiging champions perform.

After a rather lively production meeting with a few teachers taking part in an air guitar competition everyone went

back to their changing rooms and preparations began. We are very lucky to have Mrs Kell, a parent governor and hair stylist,

she has a wealth of knowledge and experience in theatre and catwalk shows and was able to help us create some unique

hairstyles. Our costumes were also very creative and colourful with touches of glitter everywhere.

When it was time to perform everybody was very nervous, including our stage crew. Sarah McIntosh acted as our student

co-host and introduced our piece ‘All the Worlds’ a Stage’ to a packed Waterfront audience. The piece was a

development of Shakespeare’s Seven Ages of Man, taking the audience on a journey through life’s stages. Our adaptation

was modern and was filled with comedy but also some serious scenes. Our performance went very well and left the crowd

cheering us on. One of the judges said that she ‘loved it from start to finish’ and the the concept and story were excellent

and very well portrayed. She even commented on how well the boys danced in particular.

After the rather energetic eight minute performance the host, Robert Skates, invited Sarah to introduce our four

representatives: Steven Houston, Kirsty McClintock, Harry Spiers and Kathryn Rock. Our representatives answered questions

about our piece and commented on some of the enjoyable elements of Rock Challenge.

The atmosphere in the auditorium was very tense during the judges deliberation and all schools were very nervous.

Cambridge House Grammar School were honoured to be given five awards. They included: Best Set, Costume Design,

Hair Design, Staging and Performers Choice. We were particularly delighted to be given the performers choice award

as this meant that the other schools had voted for our performance as the best they had seen that day.

A range of other awards were given out but everyone really wanted to know who had been placed. St. Louise’s

Comprehensive School were awarded third place, Girls’ Model second place and we were honoured to be placed first.

We could not believe that we had won the competition two years in a row. The audience exploded with applause,

screaming, cheering and chanting. There were many hugs, celebrations and happy tears.

We have now been given to opportunity to represent Northern Ireland in the UK Finals in Grimsby on Friday 3^rd June 2011.

We have already started making arrangements and cannot wait to meet other schools and compete at national level.

We would like to thank all of the members of the Dance Drama Development Committee for their help in fundraising

and organisation, Mr Maybin for his help with painting our wonderful set, Mrs Kell for her support and hairdressing skills,

Kara McCartney of Ballymena Dance Academy for kindly lending us equipment, Mr Gamble, Mr Gilmore and Mr Beattie

for their help with the set, Mr R. McCullough of Antrim Printers for his assistance with our posters, past pupils Tristan Frame

and Victoria Alexander, Miss Martin and Miss Fisher for their assistance and support during the day of Rock Challenge and

Mrs O’Kane for her tireless efforts, talent and ability to see the ‘bigger picture’.
G. Benson