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Conversations
with Choreographers of the Future
The Classical
Greek Dance Choreographic Competition was held at ISTD HQ on Saturday
11th May.
As usual
the young choreographers showed us a fresh way of looking at ideas and
themes. It is always fascinating to see how young minds work, and in
choreography they are able to give full rein to their imaginations,
with seemingly no fear of the impossible.
I was
curious to know how they go about finding their ideas and music, where
they started from, and any difficulties they had come up against. After
talking to them on the day I found that generally the idea came first
but then the difficulties arose when looking for suitable music within
the time length required. Zoe Davies and Megan Dowell, aged 13 years,
enjoyed the fact that they could pick their own dance steps and were
fortunate enough to have a large selection of classical music to choose
from. They felt that they had got a lot of fun out of the whole experience.
Their duet based on the myth, Pandora's Box, showed a new and interesting
approach to a well used subject.
The next
youngsters I spoke to were Georgina and Emma Neilson and Naomi Garland,
aged 14 years, who had found the music side hard and finished up going
to the local library for CDs, an excellent idea. They felt they had
learnt how to put movements with the music and how to use the music
better.
One of
the youngest competitors, Keziah Rea-Bradley, a rather frightening witch
aged 6 1/2 years, explained in great detail the difficulties of finding
the right music. She had several 'goes at it' and finally used a professional
to help with the cuts.
10 year
old Rosie Hulme, who came first with her solo 'Medusa', liked using
her own ideas and choosing her own steps. She had found her music from
the CD 'Lord of the Rings'. Her friend Georgi Franks thought that making
up your dance gives you confidence.
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Adjudicator
Jayne Cooper presenting the award for 10 years & under Solos to Rosie
Hulme
All photographs by Jennifer Schena
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The winner
of the 15-21 year Solos, Louisa Hicks, found the creative side appealing.
She played many CDs from the library before finally settling on the
album from the film 'Conquest of Paradise', then kept playing it over
and over until her ideas had formulated. Louisa found the spacing difficult
when moving the dance from her own front room into a large dance studio.
She felt that the relationship between the choreography and the music
was very important.
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Louisa
Hicks 'Spirits of the Dead are led through Darkness' winner of the
12-21 year Solos. |
It was
particularly interesting talking to the youngsters who choreographed
the Groups, as this is a big challenge to undertake especially when
some of them were working with very large numbers of children with differing
ages and standards.
'Grasslands',
winner of the 15-21 years Group and the Rita Brown Shield, was choreographed
by 19 year old Sarah Carpenter, who began by choosing the music from
'The Lion King' for its recognisable African/American style, and picking
out all the different sounds and rhythms in the music on which to base
her choreography. Sarah told me that she likes working with large numbers
of dancers for the images you can create, but found it difficult getting
the youngsters all together for the rehearsals, and though they all
worked very hard she admitted that the chatting had been a bit frustrating.
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| Dancers
from 'Grasslands', winnner of the Rita Brown Shield, choreographed
by Sarah Carpenter (centre) |
Helen
Fallowell, winner of the 14 years and under Groups, had over a dozen
dancers to contend with. She had played a lot of CDs before finding
the right one, and said that practising with such a large group had
taken up a lot of time, but her mum had helped with the costumes. This
made me think how fortunate all these youngsters are to have parents
and teachers behind them, encouraging them onwards. It takes a lot of
time and organisation but how worthwhile it all is and how inspiring
the afternoon's work.
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| 'Angels
Wings' winner of the 14 year & under Group section, choreographed
by Helen Falloway |
The adjudicator,
Jayne Cooper FISTD, explained at the beginning of the afternoon that
she would be looking for imagination and creation in the use of the
body, rhythm, using different heights and different levels, travel and
patterns, not just one dimensional.
Miss Cooper
proved to be an excellent adjudicator, as Chairman Sonia Bond said in
her speech of thanks, 'She gave a fantastic adjudication throughout
the afternoon and was so encouraging and interested in every single
dance, everybody was made to feel special'. Mrs Bond went on to thank
the parents and young choreographers, with a special thank you to Penny
Childs who had organised the whole competition and Karen Collings who
was in control of the music on the day.
Talking
to some of the teachers at the end of the afternoon, they commented
on the variety in the choreography, the fascinating ideas and the sometimes
totally unexpected results, which all makes this competition such an
enjoyable and irresistible experience.
Jennifer
Schena
Winners
10
years & Under
Solos
1st: Rosie Hulme 'Medusa' (Karen Collings)
Tied 2nd: Georgi Franks 'Rippling Ribbons'
(Karen Collings)
Keziah Rea-Bradley 'The Witches Brew'
(Maureen Jeffery)
Duets
1st: Georgi Franks & Rosie Hulme 'The Magical Unicorns'
11-14
years
Solos
1st: Megan Dowell 'The Spirit of Autumn Dances with Leaves' (Karen Collings)
Tied 2nd: Melanie Collings 'I Thank Mother Nature for my Beautiful Flowers'
(Karen Collings)
Zoe Davies 'The Moon Goddess Selene Visits Earth' (Karen Collings)
Duets
1st: Georgi Franks & Melanie Collings 'Persephone's Girlfriend is Hypnotised
by Hades'
Tied 2nd: Rosanna Harborne & Abigail Housden 'Nocturnal Creation' (Buckhurst
Hill & Woodford)
Naomi Garland & Georgina Neilson 'The Eclipse'
(Karen Collings)
Trios
1st: Naomi Garland, Georgina & Emma Neilson
'The Erinyes' (Karen Collings)
Groups
14 years & Under
1st:
Helen Fallowell 'Angels' Wings' (Kay Ball)
15-21
years
Solos
1st: Louisa Hicks 'Spirits of the Dead are led through Darkness' (Maureen
Jeffery)
2nd: Lauren Shiels 'Farewell to Fresh Air'
(Karen Collings)
Duets
1st: Megan Dowell & Zoe Davies 'The Evils of Pandora's Box are Released'
2nd: Naomi Garland & Lauren Shiels 'The Gods of Thunder and Lightning
Battle to Reign in the Sky'
Trios
1st: Sara Sultani, Jessica Green & Rowena Clewlow
'In Praise' (Buckhurst Hill & Woodford)
Groups
1st: Sarah Carpenter 'Grasslands' (Kay Ball)
Musical
Interpretation
12
years & under
1st:
Melanie Collings
2nd: Georgi Franks
13-21
years
1st: Megan Dowell
2nd: Louisa Hicks
Rosina
Wenham Shield
Megan
Dowell 'The Spirit of Autumn'
Rita
Brown Shield
Sarah
Carpenter 'Grasslands'
Professor
Cawadias Shield
Louisa
Hicks 'Spirits of the Dead are lead through Darkness'
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