Disco dance class and Counterpointers at Whitecross Street Party

If you’re interested in taking up Disco Dance or maybe another dance style have a look at my other weekly classes here.

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Last weekend across the UK and in other parts of the world dancers of all ages and abilities came together to dance the Big Dance. It was a very special one this year because the Big Dance organisers are hanging up their shoes.

After 10 years it’s time for Big Dance to be put out to pasture but its legacy will carry on! Many people have been encouraged and have taken up dancing because of Big Dance and in the process become part of the Big Dance family.

Their message is that anyone can dance! And I think they are right, if you’re part of a supportive group, whether in a dance class or a performance group, anyone can learn to dance.

To join in, on Saturday Counterpoint Dance Company danced one of our repertoire pieces (first performed at Indigo2 in 2013) and it was wonderful to be able to dance with the martial artists again, like we did 3 years ago!

We danced at the Claremont Project with the White Crane King Fu martial artists from Islington who added a wonderful variety and richness to the dance piece with their particular style of movement. This piece I made (Jump) was designed to be as fun and uplifting as the song it is danced to (Madonna’s piece of the same name) and you can see in these pictures just how much fun is being had! Hope you enjoy these too.

Even though Big Dance may not be around anymore, we’ll all be carrying on inspiring, nurturing and dancing as we grow the wider dance family!

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On Wednesday I spent a day at Middlesex University as a visiting lecturer working with their 1st year dance students, looking at my work with older people in dance and what’s involved in teaching and training people at a later stage in their life.

This is the third year running I’ve taught at Middlesex uni on the topic and I decided to talk to this year’s students in a very different way than previously. I’ve been thinking recently about my practice and work with dance and older people over the past few years. This time I wanted to share something about myself that made an impact on why I do what I do.

I spoke to them about my training years as a dancer and how I was always the older one in the various courses I took when I was training. During my developing years I was alway “reminded” by others of the fact that I was older and that I could not be what I wanted to be. I loved Ballet and wanted to dance as a ballet dancer but my teacher in Sardinia took care to explain that “one becomes a prima ballerina by the age of 16”, of course this immediately put me out of the picture as I was starting at 18. However this did not deter me from wanting to dance and perform.

As I arrived in London I felt very out of touch and what I had learned back home in dance, ballet and jazz were my favourites, was very different here! I decided to take up contemporary dance as I had a feeling that this approach and style was the right style for my body and I wanted to see what was possible as well as enjoying some of the things I saw people doing. Still the stigma of ageing was there and younger dancers were always favoured, getting the jobs often because they could be a lot more physical than I could.

Having got to the point where I felt incredibly discouraged, I resolved to have nothing more to do with dancing. And that would have been that if it were not for some very persistent encouragement from my now husband.

I found myself teaching young people and children and later on older people. The more I heard people’s stories about how much they wanted to dance and saw them having a go, the more I realised how much I wanted to help them achieve their goals while changing the world’s views of ageing and who should be performing.

What I do today will hopefully help people that are struggling to keep going or to simply get started, some who’ve lost hope or who have been listening to the “establishment” and already given up, or others that have put dance and performance off because someone suggested they would be better off doing something else as they were too old to be dancers. I certainly draw inspiration from my students, as they prove time and time again that if you take the first step (get started!) and are willing to do the work, there’s a very high chance of achieving something wonderful.

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I was a late starter actually, although I had been very involved in sports, and had not thought about dance until I watched a film that changed my life, it was Flashdance! It was 1987 and somehow watching how the female dancer expressed herself through movement to the fast music had an appeal for me. A year later there was an audition in my school and I thought I would apply. I hadn’t taken any dance classes before and was almost 18, but encouraged by my rhythmic gymnastics teacher to “go for it!”, along with one of my school friends, who choreographed a short piece for me to the music of Flashdance, I went for it!

Well I passed the audition with flying colours and did the show and what that encouraged me to do was to take the study of dance seriously – so off I went so study ballet with the 12 years olds! I spent hours each week at the barre alongside some children who were nearly half my height! I certainly wasn’t the coolest kid in town and at that time I didn’t realise how well my teacher did by placing me with that age group. Of course now I can see how the solid foundation of ballet and starting the work from the beginning gave me a good foundation for what was to come.

You can watch the video of Namron below, who tells his story of how he came to dance and the sacrifices he made in order to follow his long lasting love.

How did you get into dance? Was it love at first sight or just a little bit of fun? And did you manage to follow your love for dance or did something get in the way? Join your fellow readers by putting your answers in the comments section below. It helps us all to learn from our shared experiences!

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We discuss how Counterpoint Dance Company are challenging people to thing differently about ageing and to reconsider the stereotyped iedas of older people, particularly in urban society, through the many performances we do throughout the year.

Click here to listen to the show and jump to 22mins & 30secs to go straight to the interview with me and members of Counterpoint Dance Company.

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This week… It’s been intense!

Dancers from various classes I teach came together to learn a new work for the Big Dance Project, produced by Sadler’s Wells & Cubitt Artists and led by Random Dance Company choreographers, rehearsing hours everyday.

One of the things I always notice whenever we work with the top professionals is how much they expect of themselves and others, mentally and physically. Of course this can create a problem when the pro’s come up against the keen amateur… Balancing expectations against skill and ability has been a great challenge this week but the result of that work has been astounding. (We’re probably on stage as you’re reading this if you’re not here with us!).

I’ve seen all the dancers involved this week step up to the challenge, with the first two days of rehearsals being the most difficult. The choreographers gave a lot of material to learn, some came from themselves, some was created by the dancers, all of it very challenging. And by the third day most of the dancers were pretty exhausted and to tell you the truth, I was not sure if everyone would make it to the end of the project! But the choreographers encouraged the dancers to keep on pushing forwards, certain that by the end of the third day they would be much better, even if they couldn’t see it in the moment!

And guess what?! In spite of some understandable anxiety and the physical challenge, they were! So the fourth and fifth day everyone was still tired but rehearsals started to flow, the piece was taking shape and everyone was more confident. Even through the tiredness the dancers were experiencing they had an energy that wasn’t there at the beginning of the week. Everyone was absolutely focused on the goal and committed to getting the piece right and the solos, duets and ensemble slotted right into place.

I am looking forwards to seeing the performance at Spa fields today and to enjoy the amazing piece that was generated by sheer hard work, sweat and some tears! And for those involved I know it’s been an immense learning curve finding out just how much we’re really capable of when we put the work in!

So I am looking forwards to the autumn classes as I now know how much students can and will do if encouraged to do so. Watch this space everyone!

If you took part this week, tell us what you found most challenging and how you managed to solve it!

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This was an intensive session with Jess & James from Random Dance giving a glimpse of what it’s like to work in Wayne McGregor “style” and the dancers in the workshop really stepped up to the challenge, showing their endurance could go to another level when needed!

A lot of people came along and really got stuck in but weren’t expecting it to be quite as much a challenge as it was! The teachers introduced the class to parts of Atomos, one of Wayne’s recent and very challenging pieces, and really pushed the class to think outside the box. With my dance company Counterpoint I do everything I can to get my dancers to act like professionals and see beyond their age, so it was great to see Jess & James expecting a high standard from the dancers in this setting and not just give them an easy ride “because they’re older”!

This was the start of a series of sessions that will lead to us putting on a performance for the Big Dance Weekend. We’d love to see you there on Saturday 12th July. Find out all the details here.

In the mean time enjoy a few of the pictures from the workshop day…

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The Great War – In Portraits (Free).
This is a wonderful exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of “Images of individuals involved in the conflict”. I was struck by the life and vitality found in portraits dealing with such a challenging subject. If you see the exhibition, tell me in the comments section below what kind of dance movements you are inspired to make by the portraits you see.

The Kingswood Draw at Kingswood House (Free).
Not strictly a dance event but this looks like A LOT of fun, with all sorts of different rooms for artistic creation! Look out for the Playing Lab – “A digital and physical experience where your movement generates patterns, colours and textures to draw on every surface of the room.”!

National Youth Dance Company – The Rashoman Effect/Vertical Road (Paid).
This looks to be a great double bill of works by Akram Khan for for the NYDC at Sadler’s Wells.

Rodin by the Eifman Ballet (Paid).
I think this will be quite a challenging piece performed at the London Collesium, inspired by the relationship between Rodin and his muse Camille Claude. I expect it will be quite a hard look at various elements of creation and destruction in both artistry and relationships!

Head Space Dance at the Royal Opera House (Paid)
I’ve been impressed with some of the contemporary work the Royal Opera House have put on in their Linbury Studio recently and this new work by HeadSpace Dance looks like it might be worth a watch too.

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What do you think… where should we go next?!  Tell me in the comment section below.

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