From the Dancer: Effie-Mae

Effie-Mae is one of our young dancers here at artsNK. Currently she is undertaking Arts Award and as part of the award, Effie Mae has written a number of reviews about shows she has been to watch and classes/workshops she has taken part in.

So why did Effie-Mae want to get involved in Arts Award?

"I am doing the Arts Award because I enjoy coming to the different dance classes at NK and this is a good opportunity for me to learn new things about dance. I can also use the Arts Awards on my CV later on to help me get a place at college or university."

Here Effie-Mae talks about her experience watching The Imagination Museum by Katie Green, which took place at the Terry O' Toole Theatre in November.


On the 7^th of November 2013 I went to see a dance show named The Imagination Museum at the Terry O’Toole Theatre. It was a contemporary dance performance – the art forms that were involved were dance and drama. I hadn’t really seen anything like it before, but I have seen a contemporary performance recently but they weren’t the same at all. This was because the Imagination Museum was interactive and included a lot of audience participation. After the show I spoke to Katie Green who directed and choreographed the piece she explained that usually the show is performed in museums and this was the first time it has been shown in a theatre.

The performers were very funny and got the audience involved all the time such as: at the start when we walked in Harriet (one of the performers) gave me and my friend Annie-Mae a sticker and said you are mammoth one and you are mammoth two. We felt a bit scared that we might have to go on stage in front of everyone when we were given the sticker. We didn’t know why we had the stickers but we soon found out!

As we went into the auditorium to take our seats our seats at the back one of the performers, who was called Henry, called us over to help set up the performance.  We had to move some boxes over to the other side of the stage. Later on in the performance Henry said that the boxes needed to be on the other side of the stage ready to be collected.  He made the audience pass the boxes from one side of the stage to the other, passing them through the audience but once the boxes had been passed all the way through the audience he realised these boxes had just been delivered and he made us pass them all the way back again.  The audience groaned a little as they passed them back again but it also made us laugh because he had got it wrong.

At the very start of the show Mildred called out that all of the mammoths had to hide behind their seats! We did this giggling as it made us laugh; once we had hidden we were allowed to sit back down again. Mildred was another dancer in the performance and she liked everything squeaky clean she made Henry and Harriet tidy everything up. Whilst they were cleaning up Mildred came up to me and Annie-Mae and started cleaning our shoulders. This made me feel happy that she was interacting with us. Throughout the whole performance the dancers were really interacting with the audience which I enjoyed and liked because it made me feel part of the show. I didn’t dislike any part of the performance because I thought that it was all really creative and well performed. It was a bit disappointing because there was hardly anyone in the audience and it was such a great performance! I would definitely recommend this because I think people will enjoy watching it. At one point we had people crawling along the bottom of our legs, this is something which would normally happen during a show and it made us laugh.

I learnt from the show that with a short amount of time you can still create a huge successful performance.  Katie Green was talking to Amy at the end of the performance saying that loads of people dropped out, this meant she had to change the whole performance at short notice.  I still think she did a great job, it was a fun evening and I enjoyed seeing something different.
To read more of Effie-Mae's reviews click here.

kNacKer'd Residency

Before breaking up for Christmas, artsNK’s kNacKer’d undertook an intensive day residency with Chantry Dance Company. Chantry is a contemporary ballet dance company based in Grantham and London, led by co-artistic directors Paul and Rae Piper.

The dancers were very lucky to have the opportunity to work with both Paul and Rae for a full day of contemporary ballet. The dancers started with a warm-up using the ballet barres, which the majority of the group found to be a new and exciting experience. The group also worked on corner work, repertoire from one of Chantry’s pieces and also had a chance to work with different choreographic devices.

kNacKer’d found it a big challenge, as for most of them it was a style completely out of their comfort zone. Holly Arnold (Artistic Director of kNacKer’d Youth Dance Company) told us that “It was very nice to see the dancers trying something new. It is also great to see them challenge themselves to go out of their comfort zones.

It will definitely help with their technique development within class and for performances as well”.   It was a long day but the dancers gained so much from it, and really appreciated the help and support from both Paul and Rae. Holly and kNacKer’d would like to thank Paul and Rae for coming to work with them and hope that they get to work with Chantry again in the future.

InspireDance Expands!

The dance team’s InspireDance education programme is expanding in the New Year with THIRTEEN new schools coming on board! These schools include primary and secondary schools from across the county – meaning high quality dance provision will be spreading right across Lincolnshire! 

The dance team will be working closely with these schools to support them to develop and improve their current dance offer to pupils, offering a bespoke service which will meet each of the school’s individual needs. This support may include providing ideas of how to form cross-curricula links using dance, guidance on enhancing boys engagement in dance, and upskilling teachers through teacher training and mentoring. Whatever support the team provide one thing is for sure, 2014 is going to be an exciting year for dance in education in Lincolnshire!

NDTA Conference, 23rd November 2013

This year Holly and Alice from the Dance Team attended the National Dance Teachers Association Conference at Trinity Laban in London. The theme for this year’s event was dance in the school curriculum and through a number of workshops, seminars, and keynote speakers topics such as how to implement the new school curriculum, ideas for teaching curriculum dance, and the issues facing dance in schools were debated and discussed.

Alice also attended a session where examples of current research on dance in education were outlined including presentations by Lizzie Swinford (Researcher and Dance Teacher) on the role that ‘play’ has within dance teaching; Rachel Farrer (University of Bedfordshire) who's research is exploring tacit aspects of learning in dancers; and Maggie Killingbeck (University of Bedfordshire) presenting on the value of Laban’s analysis of movement in dance education.

The conference ended with a showcase of primary, secondary and youth dance held in the Laban Theatre, followed by the usual Dance Team run to the station to catch the train home!

redXco Residency

In October half term, artsNK’s street dance company redXco worked with two dancers from Boy Blue Entertainment (BBE). During the residency, they focused on working on House, Hip Hop and Locking foundation styles within the Hip Hop genre.  They also began to work towards their new dance piece which they will be performing at artsNK Youth Dance Programme Showcase and the U.Dance County Platform – True Motion.

Nathaniel ‘Sweetboy’ and Gemma from BBE delivered the 3 day residency to a very high standard. redXco learnt a lot from the 3 days and are extremely excited to put into practice what they have learnt.

A member from redXco said ‘I absolutely loved working with BBE, they are amazing dancers and delivered some great choreography.’ redXco member, October 2013.

What a busy few weeks!

Whoa! The Dance Team have been incredibly busy over the last few weeks since Zygote Festival happened in Sleaford....

We had a great time working on the festival, especially creating performance pieces for St.Denys church, Bristol Arcade and commissioning professional aerialist, Alexandra Hofgartner and her producer Cat Boot, for the spectacular aerial performance on Eastgate Green. Post Festival, we ran open workshops for local adults to come and take part in some aerial silks and lyra (hoop)..... WATCH THIS SPACE FOR MORE WORKSHOPS COMING TO LINCOLNSHIRE SOON!

Since then, 3 members of the dance team took their EXTEND VTCT Level 2 qualification in Chair Based Exercise, enabling them to now be fully qualified instructors for the Vitality over 60's exercise classes (held locally).  In addition, we've been very busy planning the start of DANCE FACTOR 2014!!! The popular young peoples project is back, better and ready to go! There are 10 weeks of FREE streetdance sessions for ANY young person aged 11-18 years.

 

Sessions begin on 21st & 22nd November, in various locations around NK and City of Lincoln. Have a look at the flyer for your nearest. No need to book, just turn up and take part!

 

Our programme is continuing to build and we are continually responding to requests from schools, partners and other organisations for dance activities.

 

If you know a school, teacher, board member, PTA, committee or headteacher who wants to access more dance in their school?? Ask them to contact Amy, Head of Dance Development who can advise them about our NEW dance in education programme. Launching in January 2014, we would be happy to discuss dance provision in any school within Lincolnshire.

Contact amy.dalton@litc.org.uk or 07766 422675.

 

What a busy week!

After last Sundays Zygote Festival, there was no rest for the Dance Team with another jam packed week ahead.
Monday through to Wednesday saw our Aerial workshops being held at Northgate Sports Hall in Sleaford.  On Monday, participants were lucky enough to be taught by Joe from CircusMASH UK, who also recently trained members of the Dance Team.

Amy O' Sullivan, one of the Dance Artists from artsNK, came along to the workshops. When asked what she thought about the workshops, this is what she had to say "'After taking part in the aerial workshops for 2 days, I now miss being upside down and in the air so much! Although I prefered performing the still positions on the hoop, I gained more confidence on the second day of the silks. It's really refreshing to have such free workshops as it brings new opportunities for performance and to learn something new! Thoroughly enjoyed working with the circus professional and the artsNK dance team and hope to swinging from the aerial rig very soon :)!' 

Keep a watchful eye on our Facebook page for more information on upcoming opportunities with the Aerial equipment, including more possible workshops!

Also this past week, both our Youth Dance Companies, kNacKer'd and redXco were taking part in residencies Blueprint: Media and Boy Blue Entertainment respectively. 

kNacKer'd, working with Blueprint: Media, were creating a digital film piece based on Ghost Town. The results look pretty impressive!

Photo: HollyartsNK

redXco, working with Boy Blue Entertainment, were working on a piece based around the London Riots. Again the results look very impressive!

Photo: EmmaartsNK

We also have exciting news! Dance Factor is back! It kicks off in just under a month, more details shall follow shortly so once again, keep an eye on our Facebook page for that happening! You can also keep up to date by following us on Twitter @Dance_Factor and liking the Dance Factor Facebook page!