Rock Challenge 2008

The Petersfield School swept the board on Wednesday 21 st May at Portsmouth Guildhall, with four category awards and the title of overall champions in the Rock Challenge South Grand Final. A team of 120 students threw themselves in to an outstanding performance of ‘Amber Alert’, this year’s entry to the Dance Drama spectacular (the aim of which is to achieve a ‘natural high’ without the use of drugs or alcohol, but through live performance).
Having won through in their heat in April, the TPS team was right to expect tough competition in the final. Kings Langley school with ‘Hero to Zero’ explored the pressures on young people to conform to the ‘size zero’ body shape and Cranbourne explored teenage depression. But there could only be one winner and it was ‘Amber Alert’ that stole the show. Awarded best ‘concept interpretation’, the theme was child abduction and the American Amber Alert system, which notifies all media in a locality where a child has gone missing, throwing a net around the immediate area so that the abductor is caught and the child returned to safety.
‘Best set ’ was in the bag the minute the curtain opened to reveal a chilling empty playground, swing moving back and forth, childless. Clever design had kept the colourscheme simple and dramatically effective: plain white for the innocent child, black for the dark side of human nature, the abductors, and finally amber - the colour of awareness, community effort and rescue in the Amber Alert concept. Lighting picked this out, with high impact monochrome set scenes, broken by the amber ‘rescue’ dancers. There were gasps from the audience as the whole stage was plunged into darkness, broken in a precisely planned sequence of torches, lighting one by one - the rescuers. Award number three: best lighting design!
The truly coveted Rock Challenge awards, though, are those for drama and choreography, indicative of who will take the overall prize. Tension mounted as the judging was announced and King’s Langley School scooped drama, but when TPS was called forward yet again, for their fourth trophy of the evening – choreography, the masses of assembled parents, staff and children began to hope that the big one was in the bag.
One judge commented that she could see the expression of every single performer onstage, each bringing complete commitment to both theme and performance. The image that would last with her forever, she said, was of one boy carrying off a child, slung over his shoulder, menacing the audience with a chilling glare. She would, she said, be sending a video of the performance to the charity of which she is vice – president: Missing.
During the final, nail biting moments, as the ultimate winner was announced, the TPS team sat in the dressing room in a circle, holding hands and waiting. Finally, the Guildhall roof was raised as The Petersfield School was named Rock Challenge South Overall Champions 2008. TPS wins £250, plaques for each award and the Rock Challenge trophy 2008. Next year, qualification won’t be required as all this now makes TPS a ‘ Premiership School’, with automatic passage to the Grand Final.