BEACON Hill School is inventing new possibilities for the age-old art form - dance drama - through the innovative Earth Story for the Youth Arts Festival in November. The school emerged on the local youth arts scene last October as the only primary English Schools Foundation school to perform at the festival. Arts Festival director Lindsey McAlister called the school's Emotions in Colour performance ''fabulous and interesting''. Ms McAlister said she expected Earth Story to be ''very creative with their own stamp on it''. ''You've got people who can work well together and are so enthusiastic,'' Ms McAlister said, referring to Earth Story producers Elizabeth Woodhouse and Scott Gibson. Ms Woodhouse and Mr Gibson, both Beacon Hill Primary Six teachers, described how Earth Story evolved during the heady days following the Youth Arts Festival last autumn. ''The dance drama was conceived in a moment of madness when Elizabeth and I were still high from our previous collaboration, Emotions in Colour ,'' music teacher Mr Gibson said. They decided to produce a larger-scale work. ''We were both impressed by the book Earth Story , written by Eric Maddern and Leo Duff. When we discovered its sequel, Life Story , we realised that the groundwork had already been done for us, and here was an inspiring theme waiting to be developed through the medium of music and dance,'' Mr Gibson said. Mr Gibson wrote the music for the dance drama. ''The music reflects various emotions in differing styles from Baroque chamber music to jazz and rock.'' Ms Woodhouse explained the choreography. ''As with all art forms, the essential element of dance drama is emotion. ''The emphasis in this production is the exploration of these feelings and the realisation of them through movement, be it light banishing darkness or the death toll of the dinosaurs.'' The result is a piece where music and stage work carry the imagination through scenes of rain, thunder and lightning and where bubbling cauldrons seethe through the bodies rolling rapidly across the stage. The piece is full of physical imagery as the dancers use their bodies to create evolving planets, plants and animals. The CD is available at $100 from the school office.
