They are a dynamic duo who call themselves the Double Digits and are already dancing their way to post-HSC success.
Identical twins Paul and Frank Barbara with a gift for performing hip hop with humour have been offered full-time places at Sydney performing arts academy Brent Street.
Crucial to their success was being able to pursue their shared passion through the ViVA! program, run at the Southern Cross Catholic Vocational College in Burwood.
The newly graduated Patrician Brothers’ College Fairfield students were among those from five Sydney Catholic Schools who sat the HSC Dance and Drama practical exam for the first time through the program. The brothers performed each other’s choreographed work in contemporary dance and hip hop for their major composition.
“My dance was more of a story and it had a definite structure while Paul’s was more straight hip hop,” Frank said.
They started with lessons at the local dance school just around the corner from their home when they were in primary school and things quickly took off from there.
“Dance is just kind of a natural thing for us to do,” said Paul, while Frank adds that he also likes the storytelling aspect of contemporary dance.
“I like to add quirky or comedic elements if we can and get people laughing,” said Frank, whose HSC dance featured the twins as robots. “Ultimately we want to entertain people and with the relationship between us we can make things entertaining and quite funny.”
Paul said he “just loves dance and we just love performing with each other”.
“We hope to continue performing together in the future and develop all-round abilities in performance but our main focus is dance.”
Principal of Southern Cross Vocational College Pat O’Reilly said he was very happy to have hosted the ViVA! program which also includes music and drama over the last two years using the college’s digital recording studio, green screen room, state of the art auditorium and a dance studio.
“It allows students the opportunity to access the courses that their own school struggles to offer due to lack of numbers, and I look forward to offering that opportunity to more students in the future,” he said.
At Patrician Brothers, the duo also studied the same HSC subjects including art and engineering to foster their shared interest in industrial and product design, with one of their hobbies using a 3D printer to make hard-to source replacement car parts for their car-mad father and grandfather.