Christchurch Dance Festival

One of our largest events of the year, The Christchurch Dance Festival, brings together over 300+ children from across Christchurch to explore, create and perform at the De La Salle Theatre. The event is split into two parts, the first being the Festival Day; a supportive and inspiring environment for children to watch each other perform. The second being the Evening Showcase; where 450+ family members are invited to watch their children perform within a professional theatre setting.

The intention of the festival is:

To provide high quality dance opportunities for children to learn through a physical and creative medium about a theme or topic
To offer continued professional development to teachers on the delivery and implementation of dance in primary schools
To present opportunities for children of all abilities to experience rich, fulfilling and inspiring events, no matter the circumstance

To provide dance opportunities for pupils in local primary schools to perform in a professional theatre setting
To create a supportive and inspiring environment, where children are able to celebrate their own creative journey as well as others
To present the journey children can experience with dance throughout their education, through the inspiration of secondary students who also choreograph and perform at the events

"The dance festival provides the perfect platform for children to gain greater confidence, respect, leadership and physical development in a fun exciting and engaging way. At SIS we have seen a great number of children develop as a person during the process of the dance festival in particular showing an increase in confidence, resilience and creativity. It has also lead to children becoming more interested in dance and wanting to continue in school once the festival had finished. In 2024 the dance festival was performed to parents and family for the first time which created a perfect evening of dance. The children were bursting with excitement and pride on the evening, as were the parents and family members. As a school we were in inundated with positive feedback from parents regarding the success of the event, the impact it had on the children and when is the next festival! The dance festival has already created an incredible amount of special memories for so many children and hopefully this will continue for many years to come."

Daniel Metcalfe
PE Coordinator at Stourfield Infant School

"The Christchurch Dance Festival is one of the highlights of the Christchurch Competition and Festival Calendar. It’s a chance for a whole class of children to engage in physical activity in an artistic way whilst representing the school. A theme is set each year and our brilliant dance teacher, Christina, visits each school to deliver a dance workshop to the selected class with their teacher to start the rehearsal off. The class teacher then develops the dance to performance standard. All the schools then perform to each other at a dance morning at the De La Salle theatre at St. Peter’s School. This year for the first time we held an evening showcase so that parents could watch the show. The theatre holds 450 and it sold out within hours! The evening was a resounding success and one which the children and myself will never forget!"

Nathan Rickard
PE Coordinator at Twynham Primary School

This year’s festival theme is Intergalactic…

More information about workshops, events and performances will follow in January 2025. Below you will find the dates and times of the festival events for you to note in your diaries if your school are wishing to take part.

Christchurch Dance Festival, Sports Event