Culture day: Noumea Public School pupils shone in the Around the World matinee last Tuesday. Picture: Michael Szabath
FRIENDS and family could have mistaken the Noumea Public School hall for a United Nations gathering last week.
Pupils stole the spotlight in the annual performance which involves the entire school with 22 items in two hours of entertainment.
It has been a school tradition for seven years.
Around 170 friends and family attended the matinee last Tuesday and another 300 packed the hall the following night.
This year's performance was titled Around the World, with every grade representing a different country.
There were other performances to reflect the school's multicultural population with Polynesian and Maori dancing, an Aboriginal Dreamtime dance and an African tribal dance.
Highlights included kindergarten's tarantella, an Italian folk dance, year 1's Elmo song, Chinese fung-fu fighting by year 2, a dance to Michael Jackson's hit Black Or White and a drumming group.
Australia wasn't forgotten with a rendition of Men At Work's Down Under.
Pupils have been rehearsing since the start of the term.
"A lot of hard work has gone into it," performance director Shannon Feltham said. "The pupils all love it. To see kids who don't often enjoy school really get into it makes it all worthwhile."
Parents were full of praise for the performances.
"Fantastic. I went to the matinee and came back for the evening performance it was so good," Lee Roff said
Issa Ghadia added: "Brilliant. It did a great job of connecting the culture from other countries with that of our close Islander people and also the culture of our own Australian Aboriginal folk".