The principal of a Rarotonga primary school wants to see a comprehensive arts curriculum developed for the Cook Islands after a successful first year for the country’s only contemporary dance class.

With a number of Cook Islands school curriculum documents up for review, Apii Te Uki Ou principal Kim Noovao plans to push for the development of lessons and assessments to teach primary pupils art, dance, and drama with the new Ministry of Education secretary.

Who will fill the Government role has not yet been announced.

“It would be something incredible to develop here, because Cook Islanders are creatives,” Noovao said.

The call comes after the school implemented a contemporary dance curriculum for the first time this year, developed and taught by Rarotonga-based creative Raed Teariki Ra using NCEA Level 1 curriculum documents – designed for Year 11 high school students – to guide teaching and grading.

“We feel lucky to have such an expert in our school, showing our children another pathway.”

Noova said the dance programme was taught to Years 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 at the school.

Teariki Ra said contemporary dance can incorporate a multitude of styles including ballet, hip hop, and even Cook Islands traditional dance to create an emotional performance with fluid dance movements.

“It’s about taking inspiration from the environment you are in – doing it in a different form of art but keeping the same value, the same history.”

Apii Te Uki Ou Year 7 pupils Malia Tansley, 11, Abigail Fe’ao, 11, and Teuruaa Goldsworthy, 12, from Room Kōpeka were among the class’ top dances, he said.

Abigal said it was an “honour” to be part of the first group of students to do contemporary dance at school.

Malia said she enjoyed the “freeness” of the dance style, with Teariki Ra being open to ideas offered by the pupils.

“I came up with a few fun moves,” she said.

Teuruaa said the choreography for the programme’s end-of-year performance, which saw about 30 children from across the year groups present a dance about the environment to the school community, was a combined effort between Teariki Ra and the pupils.

“He teaches us and we can teach him,” Teuruaa said.

Teariki Ra said there were “so many talented kids” in the programme who put together a 10-minute show which was both “fun” and “sent a message” about safeguarding the environment for future generations.

Noovao said the dance programme gave children a “creative outlet”.

“What I love about it is, it opens the door for kids to have another pathway. It’s not just dance, either. There were kids involved with costume design, set design, marketing, some were managers,” she said.

“We could see kids that really flourished, and we look forward to growing it next year.

“We would use a Cook Islands curriculum if there was one.”

Noovao had been “passionate about the arts” from a young age, joining the Whangarei Operatic and Dramatic Society in New Zealand when she was eight years old.

Noovao, who has been teaching at the Rarotonga school for the past six years, said contemporary dance had never been taught as part of a Cook Islands school’s curriculum before – the only arts curriculum available to primary pupils being for visual arts.

With the contemporary dance programme encompassing seven 45min sessions per week, it had the added bonus of creating “teacher release time” for staff to catch up on work away from pupils, Noovao said.

“It’s really helped the well-being of our teachers.”

Teariki Ra said he had been working towards bringing contemporary dance to the Cook Islands about three years ago, when he teamed up with Ministry of Education learning and teaching arts advisor Kim Napa to design an after school programme.

Napa taught a four-week visual arts class, while Teariki Ra taught a contemporary dance class over the same period for Years 6, 7, and 8.

After the class concluded, Napa “sent me” to volunteer at Arorangi and Takitumu schools teaching dance, he said.

“I was so happy, because I love performance and dance. My passion has always been the arts. I was once a young dancer travelling around the world.”

Teariki Ra said his plans for next year were to teach a more advanced contemporary dance class at Apii Te Uki Ou using the New Zealand NCEA Level 2 curriculum, and to put together a “big show” for the whole of Rarotonga.