Unit 26 - Choreographing dance

Work experience week

In February, I attended a work placement with Laura Gale Dance. The placement enabled me to shadow Laura for a week to see what she does. The placement involved many different tasks such as choreographing, admin and taking part in dance classes.

On Friday and Saturday, I as on front of house duties for the production of ‘Hairspray the Musical’ which was performed by the Laura’s older musical theatre group.

On Tuesday morning, I went with Laura to a street fit class where I was able to join in with the class. I really enjoyed the class and felt like I was able to keep up throughout. At one point in the class, some people in the class were struggling with one of the moves that Laura had added on to their routine. Therefore Laura decided to position me so that people could copy off me for this move if they wanted to. In the afternoon I carried out some research into some ideas for the musical theatre classes which were taking place later this week. I also made some flyers for some competition auditions and some certificates for the musical theatre cast of ‘Hairspray’ in preparation for tomorrow and Thursday. In the evening, I attended an adult contemporary class and an adult street jazz class. In the adult contemporary class I led the class through a warmup. Also when we were going through some technique, I was asked to demonstrate each of the moves so that the class knew what to do. In the adult street jazz class, I was able to join in the class and begin to learn a routine which will be performed at The Courtyard in June as part of the Laura Gale Dance Showcase. I found these adult classes really interesting because I have never been in an adult dance class before so it was interesting to see how the classes were structured. Also, I was able to try out street jazz for the first time. I found this really difficult as everyone in the routine already knew the routine and I didn’t know any of it. However, I did manage to pick up some of the choreography and I will also be able to practice this tomorrow in the teens street jazz class.

On Wednesday morning, I went into the dance studio to choreograph some warmups which I will use this afternoon when teaching some dance classes. In the afternoon I printed out the certificates and flyers which I made yesterday to make sure that they were ready to give out today and tomorrow. In the evening, I went to 3 different street jazz classes for 3 different ages – 4 to 7 years, 8 to 12 years and teens. I led the warmup for each of these classes. Each warmup was slightly different and tailored towards the age of the classes ranging from quite simple for the younger group to more advanced for the teens. In the teens street jazz class I was able to work on the routine that I started learning yesterday in the adult street jazz class.

On Thursday morning, I was back in the performance studio where I was set some choreographing tasks. The first task was to go over some warmups ready for this afternoon because we were going into a primary school to teach dance to year 1 and year 6 children. Once I had finished planning the warmups according to the age of which I was teaching, I started to choreograph some material for the year 1 children. Laura had sent me the timings of the song that they were doing and then asked me to choreograph another set of 8 counts to go on the end of the rest of the dance. The dance was to the song ‘Mama’ and was a street jazz style. It took me a while to think of what I could choreograph but eventually I choreographed a set of 8 and this was then ready to teach this afternoon. After choreographing this routine, I moved onto the other routine which was for some year 6 children. The style of this dance was very different to the one before. This dance was to the song ‘Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy’ and is set in the time of the war. Again, Laura gave me the timings for this dance and then I was able to choreograph some more moves to go on the end of the dance. This choreography took some thinking but I have done some dances in this style before so it wasn’t too difficult to choreograph. In the afternoon I then went to the primary school with Laura to teach these routines. I then came back to college to set up for the musical theatre classes. In the evening I went on to help teach the younger musical theatre class. In the class I led up a warmup and then played some games with the children. We then all choreographed a dance together. For the older musical theatre class, I was helping out as they were having a celebration for all the hard work that they had put into their version of ‘Hairspray the Musical’. After these musical theatre classes, I went on to participate in the dance classes that I take every week.

I really enjoyed this week of work experience with Laura Gale Dance. I learnt a lot during the week which I will be able to apply to my course. I have learnt lots from working with dance teachers Laura and Emily during the week in terms of choreography. I was able to experience dance styles which I haven’t experienced before so I now therefore have a broader range of knowledge of different dance styles. I was also able to have an insight into what it is like to have your own dance company and teach dance to many different aged people.

Here are some pictures from during my work experience week: