A truly student production: Wagga High prepares for spectacular performance

The Wagga High School hall will be packed with students, family, friends, staff and community members on July 2 and 3 as they watch around 80 students put on a show like no other.

Students from local feeder schools will have the chance to see the annual dance spectacular during matinee performances on both days.

"[The Dance Spectacular] gives us an opportunity to show our community and our friends and our family to see us [perform]," Year 11 student and member of the senior ensemble Yindyamarra Johnson said.

Yindyamarra only began dancing this year and it has opened up a whole new world for him, including being selected for the Aboriginal Dance Company with Bangarra Dance Theatre.

"I'm loving it. I'm so excited. I get to go up every couple of weeks to Sydney for a week at a time, learn it and then perform in School Spectacular and state," he said.

"It's crazy, I'm mind blown.

"Every time I've got an email, I've just run around my house at a million miles per hour because I'm just that joyed and excited for all of it."

The youngest member of the senior ensemble, Year 9 student Myer Mescia, said the shows were a chance for families who can't access larger performances to still have the chance to come out and see a special event.

"I don't dance outside of school, so this is everything for me. This is my whole life," she said.

"It's an honour to dance with all these good dancers, especially when I'm the youngest and they're all really good."

The first half of the Dance Spectacular consists of school level level performances, incorporating the school's syllabus for dance education - contemporary works, performances the kids did at the Riverina Dance Festival and those nominated for the State Dance Festival.

The second half will be a bit more bedazzled according to Wagga PDHPE and dance teacher, Melissa Brown.

"There's lots of sequence, there's lots of musical theatre. Our theme this year is called 'breakaway'," she said.

"We're celebrating artists that used to be part of a band. So we do have some One Direction in there [with] some students that will sing those pieces.

"We've got some Beyonce, some Pink, there's a few artists we didn't realise actually used to be part of a band. So that was a bit of fun, looking down that little rabbit hole."

Ms Brown said the second half contains everything from a tap ensemble to hip hop ensemble.

"We've got a ballet duet, some ballroom duets as well in there, too. Then the musical theatre element where we get the musicians of our school to come and sing. We've also got a group of students doing a musical classical guitar trio," she said.

"So we've got a branch from all areas of the creative and performing arts and showcase what we've got here."

Year 10 student Jazmin Castle has her work cut out at this year's event, as she is singing and dancing in multiple parts of the show.

"I'm involved in a number of different styles. I'm doing hip hop, contemporary, tap, musical theatre ... I'm also singing Tina Turner at the same time and dancing. It's a lot a lot of fun," she said.

"I love working behind the scenes and setting everything up, and then when you perform, it's sort of like a really big sigh of relief that you get to perform.

"It's so exhilarating and always feels amazing to perform in front of an audience."

Jazmin performed a cover of Natalie Cole's Orange Coloured Sky while promoting the extravaganza on local radio alongside Ms Brown earlier in the week.

Also taking to the stage at the spectacular will be the special education dance class, who will be performing a routine they did at the Riverina Dance Festival.

In his fifth and final year with the group, Year 12 student Alex Campbell said he was looking forward to the show and looked back fondly on his time dancing at the school.

"It's been very nice. I've loved my time here and met a lot of people on the way," he said.

Though they won't be on stage, many of Wagga High's other students will be getting involved in the show.

"We've actually got a group of nine and 10 students working backstage with us this year, alongside some year 11 entertainment students," Ms Brown said.

"Those kids in particular get to learn some state of the art sound and lighting, with the people from the community that we get into help put that part of the show together for us.

"Even building the stage with the teachers, we get involved in that, but the kids get to come and see how that actually happens."

Ms Brown said the dance students have worked hard and have become a big team.

"We've become a bit of a family, 'the dance family', we call it," she said.

"Especially when they come into our ensembles, the expectation on those students is that they do a lot of extracurricular hours. We work after school, often through our lunch breaks and sometimes before schools and on the weekends," she said.

"The senior ensemble, they get to travel to Sydney, if accepted into the State Dance Festival ... we're in the School Spectacular this year ... that will be a trip to Sydney in November.

"For some of these kids, they never get to go there, so to be able to take them ... doing what they love, it's a really privileged position that I am in for these kids."

Ms Brown said when she has students knocking on the door asking to be involved it is exciting for the teachers.

"This is an annual event for us, so we do this every year, in term two and we are hoping to bring back the school production in the coming years too," she said.

"We're hoping that this year is a bit of a boost to help get that off the ground again."