Unit 26 - Choreographing dance

Monday 26^th March

Today I went to The Courtyard which is the local theatre in Hereford with my dance teacher Laura to observe a tech and dress rehearsal for a show which will be performed tomorrow night. The show consists of lots of different pupils from primary schools from all over Herefordshire which all come together to put on a show. Laura has been working with some of the primary schools over the past term to teach them a dance which they will then perform on the main stage at The Courtyard. This is all because of the project ‘Moving Targets’. The aim of the project is to bring together classes of children from local primary schools. The performance helps the children to unite and appreciate the other children in their class. The routines have been chosen and choreographed specifically to fit this message. 

The first school that we were working with was St James Primary School. The children who were performing were in year 5 and they were dancing a street jazz routine to the song ‘This one’s for you’. Before the children could get up onto the stage, they had a health and safety talk. They then went backstage and were ready to begin to practice their routine. They ran the routine once and then it was time to make some alternations. I was sat in the auditorium so that I could look at the spacing throughout the routine. I communicated with Laura when I thought some people needed to be moved slightly. This worked really well and by the end of their session, the routine was looking really good. This did take quite a bit of time because the children weren’t used to having such a big space to dance in. 

After lunch, we were working with another school – Trinity Primary School. The pupils from this school were a mixture between year 4 and year 5. Their rehearsal slot had a very similar structure to the first school. However they were performing a different routine. Their routine was to the song ‘Came here for love’ and was also a street jazz style routine. I again, sat in the auditorium and watched out for any spacing issues throughout the routine.
Both of the songs that the children have been dancing to reflects what the project is all about. The tracks send out a positive message and will give positive vibes to the audience. Both of the routines were choreographed in a specific way. All of the children started off as individuals and as the song progressed, they moved into pairs, small groups and then ended as one large group at the end. This is a really nice method of choreography and I could possibly use it in the future when I am choreographing routines. 

This trip to The Courtyard has been great experience as it has shown me what it is like to work with children in moving a routine from the school hall, to a big stage. I found it really interesting and enjoyed the experience.