Dance Toolkit

Last week saw the second, and hugely successful, Higher Education Progression Toolkit day for The Creative Way Dance Network

Students from the network’s Further Education partner colleges, from across the Thames Gateway, were warmly welcomed into Laban for a day packed with activities.

Right from the start of the bursting agenda, there was a real buzz about the day. The college students gathered to register, and made their way through the bright and colour-kissed concourse of the Laban centre for the day’s introduction in the lecture room. One student excitedly declared, “Today’s going to be really good!”

With all students gathered, Veronica Jobbins, Head of Professional Studies: Education and Community Programme, Laban, delivered a presentation filled with information about the various study routes in dance: University, Conservatoire or Vocational School?

Following this was an interactive session focused on the ‘healthy dancer’. This provided a forum for the students to consider the ways in which dancers can strengthen, maintain and nourish their bodies for optimum performance within an active career.

With minds brimming with the varied possibilities within a dance career, the students continued the morning with a dance industry panel discussion, to learn more of the opportunities available within this vocation. The panel included: Sarah Dowling, dance-theatre artist; Pearl Jordan, creative homeopath, dance artist and choreographer; Paradigmz, performance artist; and Anne-Marie Smalldon, Artistic Director, Combination Dance Company and Sky Blue Pink Productions

This panel of professionals offered a real treat of inspirational stories of their own varied career journeys, with strong motivational messages instilling self-belief and determination in the dance students. Ama, Lewisham College dance student, expressed thanks for “a good choice of panel; all from different routes; all with something valuable to say”. She concluded: “I feel really inspired. I’ll take something from all of them”.

The infused messages from the panel discussion - encouraging the students to learn all that they can, be a ‘jack of all trades’, flexible and, ultimately, more employable – provided the dance students with all the encouragement needed for the afternoon’s mixed programme of dance workshops in ballet, contemporary and street dance. The studios were hives of activity, bursting with energy and enthusiasm. Students keenly engaged with all styles of dance, giving all that they had to each scheduled session.

At the end of a very gratifying day, the college students expressed much thanks to colleagues at Laban for hosting the day, which offered great insight to the variety of available study routes in dance – noting the programme’s particular success in demystifying the courses offered via conservatoire and vocational training, posing the question, ‘why don’t other conservatoires and vocational schools do this?’

Back at their various Thames Gateway institutions, one week on, reports from the students’ tutors are equally positive. The students have reportedly been left enthused by the industry panel’s encouragement that, with determination, they can achieve great things. This has impacted in the positive realisation that they can make their own opportunities in life, and in their careers. Now equipped with information about the available study routes, the students now feel empowered to make informed choices about their next step towards a career in dance.

Lindsey Pugh, Programme Manager for Performing Arts and Music, The Creative Way, 06/05/10