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THE ALLEYNIAN 709
DRAMA & DANCE
DISTANCE DANCE AND BEYOND
Catherine Ibbotson looks back on a year of unusual and inventive dance opportunities
Dance at Dulwich this year has seen both remote learning and Covid-safe lessons in the theatre. During lockdown, pupils videoed themselves performing choreography at home inspired by Stomp, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, and this year’s DCiam theme, ‘We Are’, and also took part in live online yoga classes. In January, Year 7 boys created their own thoughtful and imaginative dance videos in response to Echo Eternal’s ‘Be the Light in the Darkness’ theme for Holocaust Memorial Day. Their highly creative work featured gestures layered with recurring movement motifs, the effects of which were both intriguing and moving. A montage video was edited together and entered into U.Dance 2021 (London Region), run by One Dance UK and hosted by Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. The piece, named ‘Shine’, was successful in being selected along with seven other pieces in London, and was streamed online. As part of the platform, the boys took part in jazz and commercial dance workshops delivered online. This was a fantastic result, considering some of the same boys had also taken part in U.Dance 2020 (London Region) with ‘Rainbow Dance’, which was created when Year
6 boys had returned to live school at the end of the summer term of 2020. This was a colourful, uplifting and vibrant dance which reflected the twin themes of supporting the NHS and of embracing individual identity under the banner of the rainbow. This year’s lockdown saw the first ever Lower School House Dance competition. The event was a great success, with lots of high-calibre videos being submitted under the ‘video game’ theme. Next year’s competition should be even more exciting, with group pieces and a live audience to look forward to. Year 8 took on the challenge of devising and choreographing short pieces based on ‘ocean pollution’ as part of their learning during the summer term; we are looking forward to developing them further next academic year. Year 12 students incorporated several dance pieces within their devised piece ‘The Get Down’, including a funky 70s dance and exciting free running. Finally, some of the Lower School boys will be taking part in our Founder’s Day dance show, the first dance performed in front of a live audience this year. It will be a fantastic way to end what has been a strange 12 months for us all.
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