Summer Schools

August was an important month for me, not only because we rehearsed SPUN Productions for the performance outside the National Theatre, as part of Liberty Festival, but also because I had the pleasure of leading two Summer schools.

The first Summer school was housed at the Ashcroft Arts Centre in Fareham, and was aimed at young teens with disabilities wanting to have fun through dance. So I took along my bottle of bubbles, my pieces of paper with different shapes doodled onto them; and my rubbery face to pull and contort in a way that has become somewhat of a trademark in StopGAP!

 

After 4 days of learning new ways of moving through different stimuli, we showcased our hard work to the participants parents, and were happy to find that not only had we built up a new movement vocabulary, but had created a short dance too.

 

The second Summer school took place at The Point in Eastleigh, a venue StopGAP knows very well having not only taught there at the Summer school the year before, but also Premiering StopGAP’s latest stage production Trespass.  The Point offers a weeklong course aimed at teaching participants about integrated dance practice.

 

I was asked to plan and lead the week, with Anna Pearce as my assistant (a partnership I look forward to continuing with StopGAP’s Youth Dance Group every Wednesday. But I digress).  Throughout the week we looked at tasks aimed at creating movement whilst working alongside one another in an inclusive manner. Each participant brought a wide range of abilities to collaborate and produce exciting movement material that I found a genuine pleasure to watch.

 

It was thrilling watching the next generation of contemporary dancers work with each other in an integrated way. After all it’s a natural thing.

 

Some of the StopGAP Youth Group members took part in the week, and having taught them for almost 3 years (through YG or workshops) it was amazing to see them come out of their comfort zones and grow in confidence.

 

The week’s tasks culminated in a sharing/performance to friends and family; and were met with loud applause and happy faces. Judging by the standard of dancing and the level of understanding in such a short amount of time, I’d say the week was a success. One that I look forward to re-creating next year…

SPUN Productions at Liberty Festival – Hannah

On the 3rd of September the StopGAP dancers were invited to do a performance on our piece ‘SPUN Productions’. When we all got there it was jam-packed with thousands of people and performance rehearsals. The weather was really hot and light windy which was perfect on the day. We performed our piece ‘SPUN Productions’ in the afternoon and the evening. Our performances were at 1.30pm and 6.45pm.

We performed by the London Waterloo train station, nearby the National Theatre. Our space was next to the National Theatre where there was a café, the river and the bridge.

When we performed the audience loved it and participated very well. At the end of the day people came up to us giving smiles, compliments and commented on our performances and our character insights in the piece itself.

While performing our piece we had an electric song and script board where our script lines and songs appeared. We didn’t know whether the audience were singing along or following our lines, but we all noticed some of the people dancing and mingling around like they were enjoying the piece full of comedy and chaotic drama.

Hannah Sampson