Our Form and Fusion Project

After watching a video about the competition in class, Michael Ormonde, David Whelan and Ben Clarke decided to enter Form and Fusion Competition. Along with Ms. Gray, we thought up our ideas. In the end, we decided to go for a futuristic concept, using materials from technology.

To gather our materials, Michael Bergin phoned around numerous companies, without success. Many promises were made but none were kept. Eventually it was the Moyle Park College students who got most of the materials for us. The teachers also chipped in.

We went with a computer theme dress. CD's were used as the main component for the dress. They were put onto a frame made of wire obtained from the hangers donated to us by a local dry-cleaners. We also constructed a bodice, head gear and a cool bag. The dress itself was mounted on wheels. A model was needed as there were no females on our team. David Whelan stepped in and asked his friend, Jodie, who said she would model for us. With our model in place, everything looked good.

However, on the 24th January, we went to work on the dress only to find it had been destroyed. It was devastating for us. We had to act fast if we wanted to remain in the competition.

For the task of rebuilding the dress we asked our class for help. Several responded but Keith Alford stood out as the most enthusiastic. He became the sixth member of our team. The next day the whole team, as well as several teachers, came into school on a day off to help us rebuilt our costume. Thankfully it all came together and was rebuilt better and stronger than before.

Over the final days before the heats, we pondered over what was to be our choreography and music for the event. We chose Sonique "Sky", as it represented what we felt the costume was about, especially in the line "look at me". As for choreography, we chose a simple up and down walk which showed off the costumes features without going so far as to take away form the costume. With all the pieces in place we were ready for February 28th.

And so it arrived. All the days, weeks and months of preparation, hard work and perseverance accumulated our hopes into this one and a half hour show. Before the show began we had time to savor the atmosphere at ground zero. There was a bouncy castle and a bungee run event at one end, and several competitors could be seen practicing on the catwalk, busy with last minute alterations and adaptations to their respective costumes. Despite the fun downstairs, we too were hard at work, in the make shift dressing rooms located in the canteen above the arena, applying make-up (to the model of course!), respraying the wheels with WD40 and adding finishing touches, such as confetti, which could only be done on the day. In fact, we had been there since eight thirty and at ten thirty, when the show was about to start, we were still putting final touches on our masterpiece.

As we watched nervously, the DJ started to get the crowd into the spirit of things, blasting "We Will Rock You" over the speakers and inviting the crowd to clap and shout along. The audience willfully replied, shouting so loud the roof lifted off the arena. Then it was time to get serious. Motorhead's "Time to play the Game" tune belted out as the first competitor began his two-minute performance. This was to set the mood for the whole competition, the loud, brash and boastful nature that has engulfed the Form and Fusion Competition and made it what it is today. Entrant after entrant strutted their stuff on the catwalk, inventively displaying their costume's unique characteristics and attractiveness, as all this time we watched from the higher reaches of the arena, awaiting the time when we would be called to perform.

And we didn't have to wait long. As entrant number 19 began, the remaining costumes gathered, including us, at the other end. One by one the remaining costumes performed until it was down to one - us. As our model began, the crowd rose to their feet, as we were the "Home Team", and roared as loud as they could. The performance went down a treat and now, all we could do was wait.

Our heats took place on Thursday the 28th of February, but the results would not be announced until Wednesday March 6th. The whole team waited with a nervous anticipation until this date. However on this day, we received the telephone call we had been dreading. We had not qualified for the finals.

Form and fusion is not about winning and even to be part of the heats is an experience that I for one will never forget. It was enjoyable and worth every ounce of time and effort we put into it. Bring on next year!

The Form and Fusion Team, Michael Ormonde, David Whelan, Mick Bergin, Ben Clarke, Jody Garry and Keith Alford, would like to convey our most sincere thanks to the driving force of our team, Ms. Sarah Gray, without whom this would not have been possible. We would also like to thank the following people: Mr. Shortt, Ms. Quigley, Ms. Harrington, Ms. Roche, Ms. Sreenan, Mr. Mitchell, Mr. Byrne, Mr Delaney, Ms. Boyle, Joeseph Doolan, Shane McCarthy and the TY students and teachers for giving us the time off and support to complete our project, and all the students who donated CDs and other materials.Thanks Barry R.!

Michael Ormonde

Special Thanks to PCLive for their help with the project.