by Josh Root
If you’d have told me a few months ago that I would be standing (or more specifically dancing) on stage in a heavily unbuttoned shirt, black jeans, a very loose tie and flat cap in front of 200 people - not just the same age, but the same school year… Never, ever would I have believed you. Although, I did have some warning from Lottie (head of extra-curricular dance) when we were working together back in July. But, even then, I still didn’t quite know what to expect. Hurtwood Freshers is something you struggle to put into words, something so unique, so silly, so embarrassing, yet so much fun (and somehow inappropriate) that it can’t be reduced to a single sentence. If you can begin to imagine three hundred teenagers in costume, being blasted bass boosted R&B and rap, blinded by colourful beams from hundreds of lights, surrounded by smoke and cacophonous screaming, you’re at least halfway there.
For me, as a day student, when Dad dropped me off each morning in the car park and asked what time to pick me up, I found myself replying ‘six o’clock, just after dance rehearsals’. DANCE! If you know me, this is possibly the last thing you would imagine me doing – yet after two weeks at Hurtwood, I would go as far to say its ‘normal’! We’d finish lessons on a Tuesday and Thursday, and during what will form the enigma slot in the timetable, we would instead be taught various dance moves choreographed by the A2 dance captains to eventually form our house act for the freshers evening.
For anyone unlucky enough not to have experienced the above, Hurtwood Freshers is an evening containing a three-to-five-minute dance routine from each house with a few bonus surprises thrown in to add to the evening. And who better to host than the legendary Head of Preforming Arts, Doug Quinn, who opened the night in full voice with his rendition of ‘Gimmie Some Lovin’. Before that, the A2s were kind enough to resurrect their Musical Theatre Showcase performed back in July that is formed from student-led enigma sessions running from early February – which all sounds very simple, but once it develops after a few months into a full-hour performance, it becomes quite the show. ‘Roll Out The Barrel’ was full of energy from start to finish with a great student atmosphere, showcasing the very best of theatre at Hurtwood.
Following that, the silliness ramps right up after a short break to ride the bucking bronco and run through the inflatable ninja run (a no brainer in Hurtwood life), with Baggy Trousers – a dance performed by all theatre students on Freshers night since the 80s. There’s not really much to say apart from the fact the band name sums it up completely – utter ‘madness’. Then the house acts begin, interspliced with some duet dance and vocals before the whole night concludes with a disco in true Hurtwood style. A chance to fill the theatre with smoke, block off the set, ramp up the master level, bring in the DJ and set Guy free on the lighting desk for the sweatiest hour of moshing and plenty of reputation-crashing bad dancing.
It's not really the way you would think to sum up the first two weeks at college but, up at Hurtwood, there’s often no way of telling quite what’s next. Freshers is a whole lot of fun – despite the unstoppable spread of the dreaded ‘freshers flu’ – with completely new faces and entirely new experiences ensuring Hurtwood lives up to its claim of ‘the most exciting school in England’!
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