Diva Off! Workshops and Showcase:

During this week, I worked alongside Ruth Barnes and Naomi Longhurst, to put together a showcase celebrating big diva personalities within shows. We took a group of just under 20 children ages 8-18, and workshopped choreography, singing and some basic acting through song. The first day was a workshop where we did a brief dance warm up and routine, followed by a brief sing through of all possible material. This helped the three of us determine which parts we would give out to people. To be as inclusive as possible and also to match the amount of talent we had in the space, we shared some solo parts and added more people into group numbers such as ‘Candy Store’ from ‘Heathers’. After we had decided who was doing which number and who was doing the dance numbers, we began working away at each number. The whole week was really positive and it was great to see such a huge amount of talent under one roof. When we finally got to the showcase on the Saturday, we worked with a dress run in the morning and the performance mid-afternoon. The audience seemed to have a really good time and we received plenty of positive feedback.

Isle Listen Summer Sessions Dance Workshop:

As part of the ‘Isle Listen Summer Sessions’ I was invited to work with a group of young people to deliver a dance workshop. I decided to mainly focus on commercial as that is extremely popular within the younger generations. We started with a thorough warm up and stretch and then continued with learning a routine I had already choreographed for them. We then had a quick snack break and then got straight back to work adding on to our routines. I gave the children the choice of whether they wanted to perform or not at the end and luckily all groups did! It was lovely to see the work that they had been planning. All of this in a short 1.5 hour session was quite fast-paced, but so worth it. All of the kids went home so excited and happy which really made me proud of the workshop. Ste, who I coordinated with at ‘Isle Listen’ said that his daughter went to the workshop and had a really great time, she was already asking when the next one was. The session was really busy with lots of children signed up, but with the large space we had at Kensington Arts it worked really well. The team form ‘Isle Listen’ also helped out and got themselves involved which was great to see. Overall I thought that this project was really collaborative and definitely well received.