On Thursday 9th and Friday 10th January, Mel Simpson, a professional dancer and teacher came into school to teach an inspiring workshop to our Year 10 and 11 GCSE Dance students. The workshop was mainly contemporary and lyrical based as these are the styles we wish to include in our actual choreography for our GCSE practical duo and trio exams. As a class, we all felt we really benefitted from this workshop. It was really exciting learning a new routine and how to add emotion to our dance moves and expressions. We now have a better idea of how to perform our routines to our full potential and also what we should include in our own choreographies in our final exams.

 

Mel taught both year groups a series of lifts and tricks to include in the choreography. She began by teaching us short phrases of the dance which she choreographed for us. As a class, we found this quite challenging at first because it wasn’t something we were used to. Mel then began to teach us a series of lifts that we might want to include in our own dances. She talked about how to express emotion through our movements which was really interesting. Once again, we found this challenging at first, but we soon mastered the lifts by the end of the rehearsal thanks to Mel’s guidance.

 

After learning tricks and lifts, we began to piece together the contemporary dance to ‘Survivor’. This was a fantastic experience which has given us all a lot more confidence in our abilities. The chorography we learnt is something we are all going to adapt and use in our final trios when we film them around Easter time. We would like to thank Mrs McDonnell for organising this inspiring workshop and to Mel for planning an amazing routine which will help us get the best possible grades when the time comes!

 

By Patrick D 11A

 

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