Third annual choreography evening a great success
The Third Annual Peter Darrell Choreography Evening with the Dance School of Scotland took place on the 13th December 2019.
This year the repertoire part of the evening focused on Nutcracker and La Sylphide. We started with the 1st and 2nd year classes performing the reel from Act 1 La Sylphide followed by the 3rd year girls in a slightly larger version of Mirletons from Nutcracker Act 2. The 4th year the presented sections of Act 2 La Sylphide and the 3rd year boys gave an excellent account of the Russian dance from Nutcracker Act 2. The seniors asked to perform a piece choreographed on them by their teacher Mr Woodwark for the 2018 Showcase as he sadly passed away in October.
Then followed the students own choreography from 1st year through to the seniors who gave a very varied and enjoyable selection of work, some using challenging issues, some just dance and some comedy.
The support given by the Peter Darrell Trust has enhanced the choreographic tuition and workshops by visiting teachers and companies. This year has seen the final visit from The Richard Alston Company who sadly are closing this year and for the first time Trinty Laban Conservatoire London specifically to work on choreography skills. The students gain a great deal from these workshops and we see clearly the results in their own choreography and their dancing.
For the first time we brought in freelance dancer/choreographer Katie Miller (a graduate of our school) to work with our senior students to develop a workshop for primary school pupils. Alongside creating a workshop they choreographed a short piece based on their daily life which they performed at the beginning of the workshop and then went on to help the young people make up their own version of the dance which was performed at the end of the day. Because of this success we are putting in place our Outreach programme that our senior students will tour around primary schools in Glasgow and dance schools across Scotland from August 2020.
The trustees of The Peter Darrell Trust are pleased to support this project which introduces new generations of dance students to the work of Peter Darrell and gives students the opportunity to further develop their own interest in choreography. Throughout his career, Peter was keen to support and encourage emerging choreographic talent within his dancers and peer group.
RSS