A Decade of Dance at BIS Abu Dhabi

Mrs. Lowe was excited by how motivated the PE team was and and how willing to embrace Dance. The inaugural Dance Production had a Circus theme, involving CCA groups from Primary and Secondary, along with gymnastics. From this initial spark, Mrs. Lowe was invited to be part of the first group of 10 Dance teachers to work with Juilliard Performing Arts Institute in New York to initiate, plan and deliver the Juilliard Creative Classroom platform for Dance. From this wonderful opportunity, a strong partnership between BIS Abu Dhabi and Juilliard was established. With this partnership came more professional development opportunities, not only for the PE Department but also other teaching staff.

Dance as a discreet subject was later added to the Key Stage 1 curriculum to add the benefits of Dance to students from a young age, Dance was added to the Key Stage 1 curriculum as a discreet subject—supporting and developing balance, coordination, muscle strength, and posture. Dance also helps to increase self-confidence, self-motivation, self-esteem, general physical confidence, and psychological well-being.

Mrs. Lowe wanted to create more opportunities for creativity and, having worked with Juilliard, understood the transferable skills that could be taken from the dance studio to the classroom. From this idea, she developed a training programme with our Juilliard Dance Specialist to train Key Stage 2 teachers, offering the tools and the online teaching resources to initiate creative ways to deliver interesting and exciting lessons. Whilst all of this was growing, so too was the confidence of the teachers involved, which automatically engaged students and encouraged them to participate in Dance. The number of boys dancing grew, and so did the CCA programme with more year groups being offered the opportunity to dance. Units of work within the PE programme were given more time in the curriculum and the quality of movement material being created opened a new door to invite students to perform at the Annual Dance Production.                     

Alongside the Dance curriculum and the CCA programme boys dance has developed and grown thanks to the partnership with Nada Musharbash, a professional dancer and choreographer. BIS Abu Dhabi was also part of the inaugural BSME Dance Festival and hase participated in every edition, including the online festivals during COVID. We now acknowledge Dancers at the Sports Awards, have introduced Dance Leaders and Dance Ambassadors, and promote high achievers and performers in Dance with The Headteacher’s Commendation. 

Dance is thriving at The British International School Abu Dhabi; over 200 dancers from Year 3 to Year 12 participated in this year’s Annual Dance production, ‘Arabian Nights’. Mrs. Lowe leaves behind a foundation of talent ready to move on to the next chapter of creativity, excitement, and performance.

Return to the newsletter