mailout youth dance 17
FEATURE
outstanding regional professional artists, as well as an opportunity to ask questions about the realities of a career in the dance world.
Following this, those performing on the Saturday evening spent the day in the theatre working on the technical requirements for their pieces. Those performing on the Sunday evening spent the day taking part in a number of excellent workshops delivered by some of the best professionals in the region. Workshops offered were: > Dance for the camera > Dance and health > Creative and choreographic skills > Hip Hop dance
Workshop groups were invited to watch the show on the Saturday evening in order to see and appreciate the standard of work being presented, before coming together to enjoy a well deserved after show party in The Quays bar immediately after the show. By 10pm the first exciting day of U.Dance was over, and all involved were in need of a well deserved rest before repeating the process all over again on the Sunday!
Much U.Dance promotion followed both regionally and nationally, including information on the brand new NorthWestDance website:
www.northwestdance.org.uk. This website is a gateway to all things dance in the North West, allowing access to North West specific activities and information at the touch of a button, including: > performances > classes and workshops > jobs > auditions > training opportunities > news > dance resources
Young people and groups were encouraged to register on the site as an individual, practitioner or organisation; in order to receive news updates about U.Dance, and to promote classes and activities to other young people across the region.
Groups were then invited to apply for the platform with work that satisfied the following criteria: 1. excellence in both choreographic and performance standards
2. ability and openness to practice new dance techniques and choreographic approaches
3. reflect the diversity of the sector
Applications closed on November 30 2009, and in mid December, 16 groups were informed that they had been successful! In all, 20 groups took part in the weekend with one invited group from the West Midlands who had missed their own platform due to the bad weather experienced in January, and three regional Young Creatives (a choreographic project led by YDE) invited to perform their work as part of the programme.
The weekend began on Saturday 13 March, with 20 excited youth dance groups arriving at The Lowry at 10am. At 11am groups were invited to take their seats in the Quays Theatre for the official welcome, a performance by The Lowry’s Artists in Residence ‘Company Chameleon’, dance and film work from Julia Griffin, and a question and answer session. This allowed the young people involved to see inspiring work from current
Sunday began with an outline for the day, a great many thank-you’s to all the people who had worked so hard to make the weekend happen, information about other dance opportunities in the region including the Centre for Advanced Training in Dance which is currently carrying out open day auditions before a final audition in June, and another fantastic performance from Company Chameleon. Those performing in the evening were given the opportunity to work with the technical team and watch other groups perform, whilst those that had performed on Saturday evening went straight into an afternoon of workshops, workshops, workshops!
Both shows were a massive success, with groups performing to a packed audience of friends, family, VIPs and members of the public, and two companies rather than one were awarded the opportunity to represent the North West at U.Dance England. These were Homegrown Youth Dance Company and Ludus Youth Dance Company and NorthWestDance wish them all the very best of luck!a
The following quote from one of the group leaders sums up perfectly what a great time was had by all!
“I just wanted to say a huge thank you on behalf of (the group); we had a great time over the weekend. The workshops were great and challenged (the dancers) a lot! It was fantastic to see the pro dance pieces which were really inspiring, and the opportunity to see the high standard of other Youth Dance Groups was great”.
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