And
as all the usual faces appeared along with lots of new
ones, it wasn’t long before everyone had said
hello to old and new from around the world. It really
is quite humbling to hear just how far and wide people
travel from to take part at Chichester, perhaps the
next time we don’t feel like getting up at 6am
to travel to our regional courses we should think of
the lovely teacher from New Zealand who travelled from
the other side of the world and took 26 hours to get
to Chichester!
Besides
the high quality and wide assortment of classes available,
I always find that it’s also the whole environment
which is a great asset to the Chichester week. My core
strength surely must be improved not just from the Dance
classes but from all the laughter along the way. For
anyone who may be apprehensive about attending, they
needn’t be as there were no egos here this week
just lots of encouragement and everyone supporting one
another.
Another
exciting part of the week was the introduction of new
ideas for the Tap Syllabus. This was taken by Alison
Forrester and Tracy Lee. First we were told of their
fascinating trip to the states in which they had watched
an assortment of classes. This was very interesting
to hear the differences in which tap can be taught and
indeed the differences in the children and their approach
in class. We couldn’t wait to try out some of
their ideas and influences. Then in came the little
stars to show us how it’s done! A class full of
mixed age children that had been coached by Alison on
some of the new ideas for the syllabus, some as young
as 6. It was so great to see exactly what we had just
been discussing in the previous class – enjoyment.
It was also lovely to see the children interact with
each other and improvise without inhibition, something
which even some of us old hands still find tough!
As
everyone headed back home, you could see that we were
all eager to get back to work and pass on all our new
information and attempt to inspire our youngsters as
we had been all week. The bruises, it would seem, were
well worth it!
Kerrie
Bruce
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