A website for dancers, dance teachers and others interested in dance
There’s nothing quite like watching a performance of Swan Lake, especially when it is danced beautifully. Tonight, The Royal Ballet will perform this historic ballet on cinema screens across the nation. We are delighted to be able to share some of the beautiful imagery with you here as a “sneak preview” of what is to come…
If you are interested in seeing this production, you can find tickets here.
Disclosure: 4dancers accepts compensation to promote this series.
by Jessica Wilson
Being invited back to university to co-present a lecture on Dance Writing was an honour indeed, particularly because I am hugely passionate about writing, and the institution itself. Whilst preparing my material, such as my journey into and through dance writing, writing whilst at university and then in addition to my role at the Royal Academy of Dance, some points struck me as particularly useful for the undergraduate, which I had not consciously registered, previously.
It became clear, as I considered what would be useful for the third year students at Middlesex University to hear, that it was important to sell your skills as best you can when pitching for dance writing. Opportunities do not always knock, so I advocated the importance of both seeking out and creating your own opportunities rather than waiting for them to emerge. In this sense I felt it was important to offer your writing skills at every possible moment by getting involved with work experience or new dance projects, enabling the art of networking to evolve and increase. However, I also considered that it was not wise to rely on networking for opportunities, or even work: confidence to push yourself and your skills forward is key to writing success.
Something which comes with experience was the act of adapting to many different people and their requirements, being flexible and reliable as a writer to deliver work on time. Different editors of different publications and websites require different lengths of copy, for different target audiences, on different topics and issues, and so on. I felt it was important to relay to the students that in those early writing days, it is paramount that you do not become lazy as a writer and assume that one method works for all. This is, I believe, parallel to the fact that the same covering letter cannot be used for all job applications for example, which is, essentially, what pitching is.
I feel the most important part of dance writing is keeping up-to-date and informed about the dance sector and its ‘goings-on’, in order to retain the passion for dance as a whole, be your interest in technique, performance, academia, and more! To be able to provide context for your work and where it sits in the dance sector demonstrates interest, insight and a reasoned approach, being able to appreciate and respond to the many strands which make up the sector, with the knowledge to do so effectively and accurately. This will mean that you are constantly learning and informing your opinions, especially if you are able to regularly see new dance work, experiencing the sector first hand and ultimately expanding your knowledge.
Today 4dancers welcomes Amie Brotherton who is going to share her experience performing in the London Olympics this year. It’s an honor that most dancers will never experience in their lifetime, so we thought it would be interesting to see what she had to say about the event…
Olympic Performer. Diary of events.
November of 2011 I applied to audition to be involved in the Olympics Opening Ceremonies. As a dancer and dance teacher I relished the opportunity to be involved and hopefully perform so I filled in all the information about myself, my experiences and my specific skills. I received an email from the ceremonies asking me to come to an audition, so off I headed to East London.
After that, I received another email inviting me back to a second which was a role-specific audition.
16 January I received an email to say I’d been successful along with an invitation to take part in the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics. I was completely thrilled!!
15 April The first rehearsal we were met by none other than Danny Boyle himself. He sat us down and explained his whole vision, showing us a video of what he wanted the ceremony to look like and a scale model of the stadium.
We spent 4 weeks working very hard in the studio on the contents of our segment. Always shattered but on a high when I got home, each new part we learnt I’d practice at home be to sure I would keep ahead, remembering everything for the next week!
20 May We met in an outside space where there were a lot more cast members and we were all put together in bigger groups. We continued to learn new parts and integrate them with other groups and stood from week to week in any weather from blazing 25*C sunshine, to 11*C rain and wind.
21 June Stadium day! We had been given strict instructions about security and as we came out of Stratford station and walked towards the park, excitement was mounting. We went through security and were faced with the huge and beautiful stadium in front of us, the aquatic centre on our left and the water polo centre on our right. We walked across the bridge and it all looked very impressive. Everything was huge!
We began rehearsing 3-4 times a week, each rehearsal bringing new surprises, whether it was an addition to the set, special effects, or trying on our make up and costumes! The press made numerous attempts to find out what’s going on – including flying helicopters over us trying to take photos, and infiltrating our radio communicators.
20 – 26 July Now we were putting on dress rehearsals for crowds of around 40,000. This was our first true taste of having a large audience. Feedback from the crowd was immense and gave us an indication of what it could be like on opening night. All the audiences were amazing, and they did #savethesurprise for us–enabling us to keep the secret from the world as to just what they could expect on the 27th of July. [Read more…]
by Jessica Wilson
EDge, the postgraduate performance company of London Contemporary Dance School founded in 2000, completed its annual spring tour earlier this year, coming to a close on 12 July 2012. Under the direction of Artistic Director Jeanne Yasko, the company’s 12 exceptional dancers visited 21 venues nationally and internationally, travelling to places such as Denmark, Austria and Portugal, in addition to performing at their home, The Place’s Robin Howard Theatre in London.
The varied programme was populated by highly stimulating and thought-provoking contemporary dance pieces, choreographed by esteemed dance artists such as leading dance makers Matthias Sperling and James Wilton (winner of the Sadler’s Wells Global Dance Contest in 2010), choreographing Dances With Purpose and Through Shards respectively. In addition to these two new pieces, The Place and Dance Umbrella co-commissioned Rachel Lopez de La Nieta and Tony Adigun’s own version of Richard Alston’s iconic Wildlife (1983) reinterpreted with the choreographers’ own individual artistic voices; both pieces were first seen at The Place in Autumn 2011. Completing the programme, dancer and choreographer Delphine Gaborit restaged The Quartet, a powerful piece set to György Ligeti’s String Quartet Nr.1 by world famous German choreographer Sasha Waltz. Delphine, who has danced in Waltz’s company, was given permission to restage the iconic piece for EDge’s Spring tour, marking the first time a piece of repertoire by Waltz has been re-staged for a postgraduate performance company. [Read more…]
To start the week off we have a student spotlight to share with readers….
1. Can you tell readers how you became involved with dance?
I actually fell into dance whilst studying a Performing Arts btec at college in Cirencester. I’d always been involved in acting whilst I was younger but had never danced and so I found it extremely challenging to start with… but I guess that was part of the appeal. I worked really hard to try and gain a place at a dance institution and was lucky enough to receive a variety of offers, from which I chose to study at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts due to its varied programme. I gained a first class honours degree in Dance and Performing Arts and also won the LIPA dance prize at my graduating ceremony which for me was a huge achievement. Since then I have taken on a variety of different projects including choreographic work, workshop leading and dance performance across the UK, and I am one of the lucky few who is able to say they make a living doing what they love.
The main aspect which has kept me involved with dance and given me the determination to succeed is the handful of individuals who really believe in my abilities and want to see me do well, all of whom have helped me to get to where I am today.
2.What do you find you like best about dance class?
My favourite aspect of dance class is the feeling of achievement (mainly evident from the amount of sweat I produce) which comes from pushing yourself to achieve new things. I am constantly trying to learn and progress, always working on my technique and focusing on my expression as an artist, and when this gets recognised in class by a teacher, there is nothing quite like it.
3. What is the hardest part about dance for you? [Read more…]