Increasing my learning outside of class, working with other dance companies...

I have decided that as this is my final year I am to explore as much as possible outside of lesson time as much as inside. Due to this I have worked with various dance companies volunteering and observing/giving feedback. 


I emailed Bare Toed Dance Company when an opportunity arose to work alongside their company, so that I could gain more experience of what the company was about and also how they work in collaboration with dance city. This was an amazing experience as I got to work with the community as well as the company which included various ages (youngsters to adults). I travelled to North Shields on my first meeting with the company to witness the set and discuss what I was going to be doing with them when they were performing at Dance City. Seeing the set helped to make my decisions about dancing serious; I was at university to dance and experience as much as possible without being side tracked by useless things. Throughout my time with Bare Toed a strong bond occurred and I knew that I would take everything away with me that had a huge impact. I will apply some of these strategies to occasions later in life.


I then thought that I would put in some extra sessions in professional Contemporary classes as I will get a broad range of teaching, due to them varying. This has improved my dancing as I feel more connected to my inner and outer body whenever I step into a studio.


Continuing with this I began to contact the university to see if there were any auditions for dancers, gymnasts or contortionists. This was a success as I am now going to be performing a solo in 'The Smokin' show. This will help will the performing side of dancing as I haven't done too much since I quit gymnastics. I love performing as you can put your own emotions and twist into making the performance a part of you. I will also be taking part in one of the third year performance pieces 'Beauty in Grotesque' at the beginning of next semester. This will be an experience as I will be working with other third year performers and it is also an interest of my own as it includes contortioning etc.


Last week I attended a scratch night to show a part of my solo, as there was a lot of room for improvement. I received some great feedback as pupils suggested things to try out which may enhance my piece. I went in there level headed and one minded as I am not bias about my choreography; it does need to change and improve if I want it to be different. This gave my performer (Lucy) a chance to perform in front of people she may not know, so that she can experience the pressure with my dance piece; being in the performance space that this solo will finally show in was another great experience for her.


I emailed a number of dance companies that did/will be performing at Dance City to see whether I could pop in to speak with them, ask questions, receive information and observe and give feedback to their pieces, which may help me also. This was also a successful experience that I will mention later on.


I have joined an up and coming dance company to explore other techniques and increase my performing range. BartTheatre Dance is a company that one of the previous third years have started and is already proving successful as a number of other dancers and celebrities want to be included in the piece. I will continue to work with this company for the mean while as it is interesting and different to my usual styles.


We then had a residency with Charlotte Vincent which lasted of a period of three days. This was very useful to me as I enjoy criticism due to always having it at gym. She began to tell us that Choreographing and performance should include concept, context and content. This are the three main principles to keep in memory. When viewing everyone's solo's of what they had come up with so far, Charlotte told us to abide by the Liz Lerman Technique. This consisted of:

1. Ask the audience what if anything had meaning for you?
2. Artists ask questions about the work (finding out more).
3. We ask artists questions about their work, not about them (Building a rap our with the audience).
4. Opinion stage - "I have an opinion about...would you like to hear it?"
5. Open discussion.

This was a very good strategy as people were analysing the work not offering opinions of what they think all of the time. This improved the choreography and helped to find a main concept to what their solo was about. This lead to the question:

1. What is my central idea?
2. What are the branches and the journey too and from?
3. What does the movement mean to the piece?
4. So what?! Why?
5. What am I trying to say about my central idea?

Helping to define my own choreography was good as my solo didn't make sense, although before this workshop I thought it did. This will help to improve my choreography a lot and I can use this over and over in future.

• Who are you?
• Where are you?
• What do you think you need to be doing?
• Am I on stage or in my own head?
• Do I know I am being watched?

These are all good sturdy questions to ask yourself when performing, as I believe that you should perform to the people in front of you and not the wall.

On Friday 11th November I followed through one of my emails to Earthfall Dance Company and I sat in on one of their rehearsal and then began asking questions on their company and how they have got there. I also began to speak to them about my solo (whilst sharing a few celebrations) and the dancers gave their feedback first. They gave me some great, fresh and new ideas of ways of choreographing, which I will most defiantly apply to my rehearsals. I then spoke to the director of the company and she gave my some solid feedback also, but she also said that if I ever get stuck on an idea and can't go any further don't be too scared to change it and adapt a piece to my dancers strengths. This got me thinking into what Lucy is good at and I feel like adding certain parts into my solo piece. I would strongly advise speaking to as many dance companies as possible as this always seems to help me when choreographing.

Finally on Sunday 13th November I began an Aerial Workshop with Hang: Hang Aerial Company. This was a really good lesson for my as it includes putting all of my strengths and passion to practise and improving and learning more and more each session. I have another two of these booked and if possible I will begin working alongside Mona afterwards to keep my aerial practise moving. This is really good for core strength and conditioning in general.

On Thursday 17th November I began to collaborate with another amature dance company with a previous third year dance student (Katy). Here I began to experience what it's like to move 'girly' and dainty throughout a whole piece. We were told to improvise for the first part of the session and my choreography was the first to be picked to include into the piece as it was very different to anything before. Here I realised that occasionally I can improvise with ease.