Chairman Miss Elisabeth Swan Vice Chairman Miss Juliet Locks Ms Christine Axon Ms Lisa Christian Mrs Maureen Christie Miss Daphne Cooper Ms Catherine Hutchon Mrs Susan Handy Mrs Sandra Powell Teachers' Summer School 2007 Experiences of Summer School at Chichester, from pointe work to Pilates! My first overseas Cecchetti summer school in England was planned as an opportunity to study the Cecchetti work in a new environment. Little did I know that this would be a trip of a lifetime, for I was attending as the recipient of the Pat Hardy scholarship. I knew that my week in Chichester would be not only inspiring but challenging. The course began with a ‘Welcome Warm-up’ class taught by Elisabeth Swan. Her energy, her sense of humour and her love of dance radiated through the class putting everyone at ease The following two sessions entitled ‘Making it up’ introduced us to the techniques of music and dance in the area of improvisation. By the use of props, games and group work Stuart Marsden lead us through a wonderful series of exercises focusing on all musical elements. Pointe work for beginners ended the day. Under the gentle guidance of Alison Dos Santos, teachers viewed the build-up exercises for sound pointe work and how one can teach different levels within one class. The Diploma classes began on Sunday. Diane van Schoor’s articulate knowledge of the work and her continuous insight into the historical, technical, musical and stylistic aspects of the exercises are outstanding. To keep Cecchetti work relevant, Diane van Schoor shapes tradition to fit in the modem world by revitalizing it. It seemed that we were on this journey of discovery, peeling layers from each exercise, unravelling its nuances. Later that day, Miss van Schoor led two students from White Lodge through a wonderful challenging class that displayed that perfect combination of technique, musicality and artistry. On Monday, Richard Glasstone led a group of young men through the major Cecchetti level work. Through his meticulous build-ups, the technical aspect of the exercises could be soundly understood and achieved before moving on, laying a sound foundation to build on. Repertoire with Jessica Clarke was a great opportunity to work together as a group. The sense of joy and accomplishment as we tried to rival the best of any corps de ballet was exhilarating. Finally, ‘Cecchetti Steps in Repertoire’ gave us an opportunity to view the work from the perspective of their origin. With great care, Diane van Schoor placed the steps in their proper framework, describing the ballets in which they appeared, the costumes worn and the style needed for the role. Tuesday was a forced day of rest having injured my hip, but on Wednesday with my hip still hurting it was nice to be able to participate in a gentler form of exercises as Conchita del Campo introduce us to the basics of Pilates as related to the ballet class and through her knowledgeable, articulate manner gave us vivid imagery to activate our core and align our bodies for healthier, freer dancing. The evening lecture was an added feature: Polish dances taught by Heather Rees from the National Faculty. What fun! Thursday allowed a changing of the guard. Miss Drower taught Diploma class, imparting a sense of joy, reverence and energy to its teaching. Each teacher of the Majors seems to bring something special and personal to the work. Is it not what keeps it alive! The day ended with ‘19th Century dances’ taught by Nicola Gaines, focusing on the Quadrille with its various versions. The evening concluded with an Awards dinner where a near festive atmosphere reigned. Friday's morning schedule allowed us to dance all together, once more. Gillian Robinson’s wonderful unset class captured the essence of these summer schools: the joy of dancing. All the classes were also a pleasure to dance due to the most inspired playing from Derek Downes, Peter Jones and Stuart Marsden. The summer school concluded with a Students' Performance, a demonstration of the culmination of a week's work. What a treat! What sheer elegance and simplicity in the staging of the first set of port-de-bras. Girls and boys danced with individuality and confidence. Bravo to all the teachers for staging such a wonderful recital. A special thank you to Elisabeth Swan, Daphne Cooper and all the staff – I feel privileged to have been part of this summer school. Hoping to see some of my dance colleagues in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for the International Cecchetti Conference, next year. Eva Annett-Romanowski Above left: Teachers' Course group Above right: Junior Summer School Choreographic Competition Medal winners As I sat in a long traffic jam on the way to Chichester I had no idea that I was about to have one of the most wonderful weeks of the year. In the first two days we worked on the children's syllabi in detail. Stuart Marsden started us off perfectly with sessions on improvisation and creativity. He showed us some fascinating techniques for helping children to express themselves through guided improvisation, and for working on young children's coordination and rhythm. Following this the grades, standards and performance awards were beautifully brought to life by Juliet Locks, Elizabeth Swan and Jenny Hawcroft. Actively taking part in these ‘children's’ classes gave me the opportunity to understand the exercises from a child's perspective, in this regard there really is no substitute for doing the work yourself, even if it does feel a little odd skipping around a studio as a middle aged man! For me, once the children's work was over the week became a dancer's rather than a teacher's course, with classes in Intermediate to Diploma. The teachers (Elizabeth Swan, Cara Drower, Diane van Schoor, Jessica Clarke and Gillian Robinson) worked so precisely and carefully with us that towards the end of the week I could feel changes in the way I danced. Jessica worked with us on feeling the pause in the first port de bras. The way she explained it added beauty and breath to a simple exercise, such that when I moved my arms through three basic positions I felt like I was dancing with my whole body. On the penultimate day, in one of Gillian's Advanced 1 classes, the week's work came together for me again and I was able to turn twice as many pirouettes as I've done in many years. This was, I think, the result of all the superb teaching I'd had during the week. These two moments, and several others, have become very special memories and they truly represent the essence of the summer school for me. We were fortunate to be able to observe two fascinating classes given by Diane van Schoor, with two students from White Lodge, and Richard Glasstone, with the men from the Cecchetti Summer School Dancer's Course. These are both confident powerhouse teachers who demonstrated how to mould and shape a dancer's body. It felt like I was watching someone blowing glass to create delicate figures. I was on the edge of my seat worrying that the figure, or one of the dancers, might snap or break. But they didn't. The dancers, who were as strong and well-grounded as the teachers, were clearly in expert hands. My first encounter with Pilates was great. Conchita del Campo has such a pleasant, joyful and passionate manner that it was impossible not to enjoy contorting yourself in such odd and interesting ways. The connection between Pilates and ballet should have been obvious to me, but it wasn’t at first. However, when we did a Pilates based ballet class the term ‘pull up’ took on a whole new physical meaning for me and I rediscovered, buried deep in a middle aged spread, my core muscles. Perhaps that’s why I was able to turn quite so many pirouettes on the penultimate day. The evening programme was full and varied. The social highlight for me was our invitation from the National Dance Faculty to take part in an evening of Polish dancing. We were taken through several dances and the atmosphere of a big family celebration. This was achieved, in part, by our enthusiastic hosts, but mainly I think by the organisers of and the delegates on the Summer School, who were a pleasure to dance with. Peter Lovatt Cecchetti Society Students' Summer Course Stephanie Wilkins writes about the challenge and fun that the Summer Course brings... Having spent a fantastic week at the Cecchetti Students' Summer Course three years ago at the Arts Educational School in Tring, I was greatly looking forward to this year's course held at the University of Chichester. I arrived on the Saturday morning, rather nervous but excited at the prospect of the week ahead of me. After a welcome class given by Cara Drower, however, we all started to settle in. This year was the largest group yet: there were 27 of us, with students from Italy and Japan as well as from throughout the UK. The course was packed with social events that allowed us to get to know one another (as well as the teachers) better. Soon we were mixing with everyone, having particular fun attempting to learn some Italian and Japanese. Sunday night was a highlight as the students watched the teachers make their entrance down the red carpet into the University's student bar, dressed up as their favourite Hollywood icon! On Monday evening Diane van Schoor gave a very interesting lecture about Cecchetti steps in Repertoire, while on Tuesday we all enjoyed a short break from dance by going to see the Victorian play ‘Hobson's Choice,’ performed at the local theatre. But of course, the best part of the course was the wide range of classes we had each day: both non-syllabus and syllabus Ballet, Pointe Work and Girls' Solos for the girls, Men's Work and Men's Solos for the boys, Contemporary, Spanish and Pilates. We were privileged to have such first-class teachers to help us improve our dance technique: Cara Drower, Jessica Clarke, Richard Glasstone, Diane van Schoor and Conchita del Campo teaching our Ballet classes (with Jessica Clarke teaching Girls' Solos and Pointe Work and Richard Glasstone teaching Men's Work and Solos); Katharine Kerr teaching the Contemporary; Conchita del Campo teaching the Spanish and Pilates. We also had Pas de Deux classes with Jessica Clarke and David Yow, who choreographed a piece for us to perform in the Students' Performance at the end of the week. The piece was short yet beautiful, and all the girls had the opportunity to be partnered by one of the five boys. Another equally beautiful yet very contrasting piece that we performed was choreographed for us by Melanie Teal of Rambert Dance Company. On Wednesday we spent three hours in the studio with her in order to compose a contemporary piece entitled ‘Horizons’. The performance on Friday consisted of various pieces and exercises that we had worked on throughout the week. It began with some of the Cecchetti work, followed by Girls' and Men's Solos, Pas de Deux, Contemporary exercises, ‘Horizons’ and ending with a Spanish piece. We all enjoyed the challenge of learning new material and, for some of us, new styles of dance. I know I speak for all the students on the course when I say how much fun we had, and I am grateful to the amazing teaching staff who helped make this week the best week of the summer! Stephanie Wilkins Above left: Students' Course at Chichester Above right: Scholarship Winners Cecchetti Society Junior Summer School Different perspectives on a fantastic Junior Summer School held in 2007 at Tring During the run-up to last year's CJSS the renowned Nesta Brooking, my ballet teacher from the seventies, passed away. She was very much in my mind as I made my plans for Tring and so I introduced the Nesta Brooking Memorial Cup; to be awarded by the faculty and resident staff to the student who they felt most captured the spirit of the Summer School. So the 2007 Summer School had an air of nostalgia and 'looking back'. However, Summer School is also all about looking forward. It is my intention that the CJSS will explore many more Performing Arts Skills over the coming years to complement the traditional Cecchetti ballet method. I wanted a central theme to the week so, starting with a Visual Arts Exercise (mask making), and exploiting Stuart Marsden's superb knowledge of Historical Dance (and wonderfully unexpected skills as a Master of Ceremonies) we 'had a ball'. Teaching faculty this year: Linda Young, Ballet and National; Helen Steggles, Ballet and Pilates; Stuart Marsden, Historical Dance; Matthias Sperling, Contemporary; Gillian Toogood, Ballet and Repertoire; Linda Isaacs, Ballet and Lyrical Jazz; Juliet Locks, Ballet; Lucy Pohl, Classical Greek; Alison Dos Santos, Ballet; Gillian Robinson, Repertoire; Diana Cremona, Repertoire; Jenny Hawcroft, Ballet; Jamie Karitzis, Jazz and Musical Theatre, Rosanna Stocchino and Jenny Stow, Street Jazz; Beth Cid, Flamenco; Miss Paris, Choreographic Skills and Ballet. Pianists: Kyoko Suter, Graeme Thewlis, Stuart Marsden and especially Pam Peters who also celebrated 25 years of playing for the Summer School. Paris Helen Brownlie Notley Organiser, Cecchetti Junior Summer School Arts Educational (Tring) is a beautiful 1680's house built by Sir Christopher Wren and what a wonderful resource for the historical dancer. For this year’s Masked Ball I taught historical dances that would have been danced in that house from the 17th century through to the late Victorian quadrilles and the students were so receptive. As a pianist, I played for all the different classes and really got to know the kids well. The teachers seemed to have a wonderful way of getting the most out of them technically while still making it fun. Each class was memorable but some were the stuff of movies – I am sure that none of the students will forget barefoot Greek dancing to Vivaldi's Four Seasons on the lawn outside the house; or in character class singing High on a Hill was a Lonely Goatherd at full fortissimo whilst learning the heel-toe polka! At the end of the last lunch on Friday, Paris summed up what the 2007 Junior Summer School had been all about: 'We've all had a wonderful week, worked hard and learnt a tremendous amount. Each of you will take away a special memory that will stay with you all your life – just like a sprinkling of fairy dust on your shoulder." And she was spot on! Stuart Marsden, Pianist I just want to say thank you so, so much for such an amazing week. This year's Summer School was the best of the six years that I've gone. The classes were ‘fab’ for lack of a better word, especially Greek out on the lawn; Historical Dance with Stuart and, of course, Musical Theatre (and not just because Jamie is a bit of alright). I'm driving people mad by singing and dancing Jellicle Cats all the time. Alice Urrutia, Student I enjoyed the range of the dance classes, but I have to say that Musical Theatre with Jamie Karitzis and Street Jazz with Jenny and Rosanna were my favourite. Jamie taught us a dance from Cats and in Street Jazz we learned a routine before a mock audition to give us a glimpse of the real world. To mark the 25th anniversary of Cecchetti Junior Summer School there was a brilliant masked ball where we performed historical dances that we had learned earlier in the week. I can't wait to come back in 2008. Alex Wetherilt, Student ISTD FACULTIES Select a Faculty Ballroom Classical Greek Club Dance DFR Imperial Ballet Latin American Modern Theatre National Sequence South Asian Tap Dance ISTD ONLINE     Copyright 2007 ISTD Dance Examinations Board