Step into Dance end of year performance Step LIVE! 2015 is being held at Sadler’s Wells, showcasing work from 17 schools groups, Step into Dance Youth Companies and 2 specially commissioned pieces from professional choreographers.
Step into Dance, is a partnership between the Jack Petchey Foundation and the Royal Academy of Dance. Step into Dance is the UK’s largest secondary school dance programme, providing dance classes and performance opportunities to 200 schools a year across London and Essex. Since its creation in 2007, Step into Dance has provided high-quality dance education to over 22,000 young people.
Photo: Foteini Christofilopoulou
The Step into Dance year ends with Step LIVE!, an exhilarating and exciting evening of youth dance being held at Sadler’s Wells. You can get involved in the free dance events from 4.30pm with Levantes Dance Theatre and a Street Dance demonstration and freestyle circle, before the Step LIVE! show starts at 6.30pm.
Step LIVE! includes two pieces by Step teachers James Wilton and Natasha Gilmore. Natasha Gilmore is the Artistic Director of international touring company Barrowland Ballet, based in Glasgow. For Step LIVE! she worked with students and teachers from different schools to create a piece that looks at how the dancers all meet on a journey and revel in dancing together.
When working with an inclusive group of dancers, with different learning and physical needs Natasha finds it best to come along with a rough sketch of the proposed piece so that it can be quickly structured and the dancers know what to expect. She has found the process so far very much a collaborative experience, ideas bouncing between her, the teachers and students.
Natasha said, “The group is incredibly groovy, I am impressed by how they have risen to my challenges and have been amazing and enthusiastic. It has been great to call on the teachers’ skills for support.”
James Wilton, international Contemporary Dance choreographer, based in Cornwall, has worked with 8 Step teachers, who all specialise in different dance styles. The teachers have been chosen in recognition of all their hard work and to rejoice in the fact that the Jack Petchey Foundation is 15 years old and Jack Petchey is also 90 years old this year!
James met the 8 Step teachers with the intention of allowing the piece to evolve naturally, which has led to the teachers’ specialisms enhancing the overall picture. Fluid phrases of seamless full-bodied movement contrasts with isolated, jolty actions.
Young people seeing some of their teachers dancing will surely ignite their aspirations of what is achievable and the endless possibilities of how different dance styles can influence a piece.
Come along to get involved!
Book your tickets now for Step LIVE! 2015 and join over 350 young people as they take to the stages of one of the biggest dance venues in the UK.
Date: Sunday 12 July
Who can attend: Open to people of all ages
Fee: Tickets from £8 – £15
Venue: Sadler’s Wells, Rosebery Avenue, London, EC1R
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