Tuggerah Lakes Secondary College, Tumbi Umbi Campus dancers performed in the Sydney Region Secondary Schools 2019 Wakakirri Story-Dance Challenge Finale in September.
As the winners of the 2018 Challenge’s top award, Story of the Year, Tumbi Umbi dancers were keen to see if they could make it back to back wins with an enchanting 2019 piece, Vida de Spirit.
Chock full of colourful Mexican folklore and imagery, Vida de Spirt had already taken out the Challenge’s Best Cultural Celebration Story Award, but sadly it was not enough to get Tumbi Umbi into the running for Story of the Year 2019, with Cranebrook High School and MLC School the two finalists waiting to hear who’ll take this year’s top gong.
However, Tumbi Umbi did pick up other awards at the Finale including, Best Teamwork and Best Individual Hair and Makeup, to add to those they’d already accumulated in the Challenge thus far, and can take pride in the fact that they were one of the top seven schools in the Sydney Region this year, which is no small feat given it was contested by more than 280 schools and 20,000 individual students.
Source: Email and interview, Oct 3 Alannah Maher, Wakakirri Story-Dance Challenge Dilon Luke, Journalist