Dance Academy this week has been a spectacular mix of fun, hard work, creativity and dedication, with one or two obligatory ‘shimmeys’ thrown in along the way.
Our students have explored many different styles of dance, including Jive, Cha-cha, African dance, Commercial dance and Lyrical Contemporary.
Our mornings have always started with a warm up and body conditioning to wake up our muscles, to develop our awareness of posture and alignment, to lengthen and tone our bodies in preparation for the day ahead. Students have then worked on developing their dance technique: working through a series of plies, tendus, port de bras, working on transferring weight, suspension and release, traveling exercises and developing a more expressive range of movements.
Students have then focussed on learning set choreography to explore the unique stylistic features of each dance to fully embody each distinct ‘flavour’. Students have been challenged with a range of styles and with their movement memory by combining all of these sections in to one fabulous performance. Students have developed performance skills; thinking about their focus, musicality and how they present themselves to the audience with a sense of presence and commitment. Students have also learnt important rehearsal skills; listening to important feedback, working independently to refine their timing and precision, and learning to support one another to create a more effective use of spacing within the ensemble. Students have also learnt the importance of looking after their bodies and have been disciplined to complete a cool down each day, using pilates/yoga props to help their bodies to recover from the dance training and to prevent injury.
Leader of the dance academy Mr Graeme Spencer commented ‘I have been so impressed with how hard the students have worked. They have used their break times and lunchtimes to rehearse independently and it has been so great to see them supporting each another. Working with dancers with different levels of experience can often be a challenge, but this group have really bonded as a team’.
Dance academy participant Esme, age 9 described her experience as ‘it has been the best week of my life!’
