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New
South Asian Committee Chairman
Amanda Leon
My
appointment as Chair of the South Asian Faculty presents me with a most
welcome and unique opportunity to combine two key elements of my life:
dance and education. I have accepted the position as an unexpected honour
and hope that I shall be able to make a worthwhile contribution to the
work of the Faculty and of the ISTD. I am particularly looking forward
to working with the Faculty members, many of whom are friends of longstanding,
who have gone out of their way to educate me about South Asian dance and
enabled me to enjoy its energy, intricacy and finesse. My education is
set to continue.
About
Myself
I am currently the Head of Student Support Services at Bath Spa University
College, which itself boasts a dynamic and fast developing School of Performing
Arts to complement its more traditional disciplines.
Having been a teacher in primary and secondary schools, it was South Asian
dance which gave me my first introduction to working in dance when I joined
the Academy of Indian Dance as Administrator. From there, I went to work
at Chisenhale Dance Space for five years as Project Co-ordinator, where
I collaborated with independent dance artists to promote research and development,
through training and performance opportunities. This was followed by a
period of freelance dance management working with many independent choreographers
and dance artists including Sioned Huws, Rosemary Lee, Sue MacLennan, Kristina
Page, Nina Rajarani and Nikky Smedley. Since then, I have studied and worked
at the Institute of Education and worked as Director of Student Support
at London Contemporary Dance School. I am a member of the board of Yolande
Snaith Theatre Dance.
Besides
my interest in dance and, in particular, innovation in dance, my principal
professional interests are in establishing widening participation in all
forms of learning; understanding and defining literacy and finally, the
development of higher education in the international arena.
The
Faculty
Clearly, following David Henshaw in the post of Chair, is in itself a huge
responsibility. For he, with the Faculty members, has done the groundwork
and set the parameters for the next stages in the development of the Faculty
and its working relationship with the wider dance community as represented
by the ISTD.
For
me, one of the most important and challenging aspects of nurturing South
Asian dance within the worldwide dance community represented by the ISTD
is the exploration of areas of mutual inspiration and creativity. The South
Asian dance world has an outstanding teaching tradition, which has enabled
many students in the UK to thrive in the confidence that their teachers
bring a highly disciplined and personalised training to their work as teachers
and artists. Equally, through the foundation of the Faculty of South Asian
Dance, they can now know that they are joining with other equally strong
and fruitful traditions as dance moves to working within the framework
provided by the lifelong learning model - a model which is impacting so
clearly on the ways we can teach dance and evaluate it within an educational
context.
There
are big challenges ahead, offered by our participation in the ISTD, including
increasing and widening participation in South Asian Dance; building professional
links with other dance forms working in the ISTD; promoting and reviewing
methods and aims of assessment; increasing the profile of South Asian Dance;
responding to changing expectations and needs in the dance community and
the wider public. I look forward to being a part of these exciting steps
forward.
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