Week of Dance at Kensington Arts – TikTok Tuesday: During this week I worked with a group of really lovely children, ages ranging between eight and eighteen. All abilities were quite different, I had some who had never danced before and who really wanted to give it a go, to children that dance all the time and have really strong technique. It was nice to see some of the children I teach during the evenings, trying out some different styles and places. On the Tuesday, we focused on viral TikTok dances which are mainly in a commercial style and a lot of the time are done to well-known songs. Following a thorough warm up and stretch, we focused on some really popular TikTok dances for the first part of the day, including ‘About Damn Time’, ‘Vegas’ and ‘Jiggle Jiggle’. The children had the chance to work on these dances in different groups, dependant on who wanted to learn which dance. Before lunch, we performed each dance and received feedback on how well they had captured all moves from the original dance. After lunch, we warmed up again and played a few games. We then moved on and I put the children into different groups, so they were able to work with lots of different people over the course of the day. I then asked the children to create their own TikTok style dance ready to either record on their own devices or keep as a working project. We again, performed each dance and the environment proved to be really supportive when listening to all of the feedback.

Contemporary/Lyrical Thursday: On the Thursday, we focused on contemporary and lyrical styles. We began the day with a thorough warm up and stretch, focusing on our strength in flexibility. We continued with general technique exercises that included kicks, turns, leaps and tricks. We spent a good portion of the morning on these as the group seemed to be invested in the exercises and committed to doing them the best they could. In the afternoon, we focused on learning a routine I had choreographed for them to ‘Goodbye’ by Mimi Webb. I then asked the children to use what they had learnt in the technique section of the day, and add some more choreography to the end of the routine. We also briefly touched on improvisation, which they all loved. We ended up playing a game where they would ask me to switch the song to any style and they would improvise to that music. It was really useful for me to see how they all moved and how they completely came out of their shells when being so creative.

Musical Theatre Friday: On the Friday, we had planned to do a session on ‘We Will Rock You’, but, as Kensington Arts changed its performance workshop theme to ‘Diva Off’, I gave the children the option of a few dances. Again, we started with a thorough warm up and stretch again, really focusing on the strength within flexibility. I then guided them through a traditional jazz technique class with corner work and short phrases for them to learn. For the rest of the morning we worked on three routines, ‘We Will Rock You’, ‘All That Jazz’ and ‘SIX’. After break I allowed the children to form groups based on the routine they preferred. I then asked them to come up with a start or ending for their chosen routine. All children worked really nicely together and came up with some great things.