February round up...

Here’s a round up of some of the exciting things that have been going on during February and an insight into many fantastic upcoming projects taking place over the coming months.

Firstly, I am happy to be working as part of the Rugby League Cares Dance Programme ‘Join the Momentum’ for a second year. This May “Join the Momentum’ takes to the pitch at St James’ Park, Newcastle for Rugby League’s Magic Weekend followed by Wembley Stadium in August for The Challenge Cup Final. On 17th February, the “Join the Momentum’ Dance Artists, including myself, took to the dance studio with the fabulous Sherene Kayra Anderson to create this years JTM piece for Magic Weekend. It was a great day creating and learning the dance piece and for everyone involved in JTM at Magic weekend this year you are in for a treat- I am very much looking forwards to delivering it and seeing it come together over the next couple of months.

Performance opportunities for dance groups to perform on pitch in a mass movement dance piece at St James’ Park, Newcastle are now available. In the past 2 years, attendance at this event has averaged 50,000 per day- giving performers an exhilarating opportunity to perform in such an iconic stadium, in front of such a huge and loud crowd! Dancers will work with a Professional Dance Artist from the Join the Momentum team on the piece choreographed by Sherene Kayra Anderson who is a professional dancer from West London who has worked with the likes of Cee Lo Green, Paloma Faith and Rihanna just to name a few. A Dance Artist from the JTM team will travel to you and your dancers for a three hour intensive workshop available during the Easter school holidays, at weekends, an evening or a time we can arrange with you. Cost per dancer (based on 25 dancers) is just £30. This includes; 3 hour inclusive workshop, morning rehearsal at Gateshead International Stadium, 2 ticket entries into St James’ Park, 1 for dancer & 1 for spectator , a certificate, a performance hoodie, a professionally edited video momento of the performance and a dance leader hoodie. To express your interest or for more information please contact our Dance Programme Manager on DanceProgramme@rlcares.org.uk . To see how the experience was last year check out; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDhJgXToIIY&t=25s

Following on from JTM, this year at SMB Dance we are excited to be offering our students the opportunity take part in JTM performing at St James’ Park Newcastle. We are also excited for our annual show, this year taking place Saturday 15th July. Along side all this, January 2017 saw the launch of our six week block Adult Dance Classes. I have loved teaching the first block of Adult Tap and Ballet classes and have been planning the next six week block which starts this Thursday 2nd March. Bookings can be made here; Adult Tap: http://smbdance.co.uk/store/dance-classes/adult-tap Adult Ballet: http://smbdance.co.uk/store/dance-classes/adult-ballet

In the previous term we have adult tapped to Take That’s ‘Relight my fire’ and worked through a combination of barre and centre work in Adult Ballet. Check out my ‘Adult Ballet Class’ blog for more information about the structure of the class and how to get involved.

In school curriculum time this term I have been teaching Lindy hop which has been great and a really engaging style for children of all ages. It also has great links to the National Curriculum as Lindy hop dance was originally brought to England by the American soldiers who were stationed here during World War 2, so for any schools learning about WW2 this is a fantastic way to link physical activity into your curriculum topic. Lindy hop’s fun and energetic dance style based on Jazz, Tap and Charleston brought real excitement to the children’s learning of key information and Lindy hop steps. Children also developed their dance skills by learning about canon, direction and order. The children also explored working individually and with partners. Over the course of five weeks it was brilliant to see the children try out a new style of dance and grow in confidence, embodying the style of the Lindy hop.

If you are interested in how curriculum topics can be brought to life through dance contact me to see how I can work with your school to tailor make and deliver cross curricular dance sessions.

At Empowered Studios this month a special mention goes to Eilidh Stuart. Eilidh’s hard work and determination in her solo competition dances for Theatre Competitions got her noticed at The Lancashire Dance Festival we recently attended. Out of her age category the adjudicator awarded Eiliidh with The Most Promising Stage Performance Award. Fantastic work.

And finally if you haven’t already seen or heard about it I attended my very first wedding show to exhibit my Bespoke Wedding Dance Choreography. I had a great day meeting clients and lots of other amazing businesses that can help with anyone getting married or planing an important life event. Check out my recent blog ‘My First Wedding Show’ to see all the details. All information about my Bespoke Wedding Dance Choreography packages are available to view on my website- also watch out for an upcoming video to be released soon!