A is for A Level Dance

Jerome Robbins

Jerome Robbins

This is the second year of our A Level Dance Course for students and we shortly see the young dancers presenting their choreographies and performing solos for their practical test.  Part of the test involves choreographing a group dance based on given stimuli, and the other part of the test sees the students performing a solo dance choreographed in the style of a set practitioner.  In the case of the latter, we have chosen the great Jerome Robbins: our company dancer Catrin has choreographed a short solo in this style which the students will perform for the examiner.

Each week the students have been working hard with their group dancers to make some lovely work.  One piece has examined the music of Goldmund, another has translated a visual image into a 3 minute dance work, another has looked at an Oriental tea garden – very diverse topics.
There will of course be a written examination at the end of the course where the students answer questions on a given period of dance history and a set work.
A really tough course, designed to test the all round skills of a dance student, not the “flinging around a studio waving your arms” examination that some people may have us believe!

I am immensely proud of the way in which our students have undertaken their tasks and sincerely hope that they will be rewarded with good results, I wish them all the luck they deserve for their hard work.

sue lewis

Busy bees

_PRT7600And so to a tiny lul in the FFIN DANCE calendar.
The Easter dance faktry festival and intensives (April 24th/25th) were amongst our most successful in terms of participation, audience figures and quality since we started these activities back in 2008.  Lots of happy dancers young and older and happy parents and friends, it was a great event.

Then on to London.  On Tuesday I travelled up to Trinity Laban to join Megan and Catrin who have been working with Gary Lambert on a new duet for our Still Standing Tour.  The work ‘Being’ was being shown as a private sharing in a low-key, informal setting which was truly beautiful.  Gary invited the onlookers to enter the space and move around to watch the dancers from all angles and to get up close and personal.  Some great feedback and also an invite to show the work at a gallery in the future.  We will be showing the duet in our home theatre, The Met on May 15th and other venues on the tour.

IMG_3706 IMG_3715 IMG_3700

 

 

 

 

This year saw our first group of students entered for A Level Dance through our ffin dance faktry.  They had their practical moderation on Thursday and all did really well, we are hoping for some excellent results, just the written exam now in June, so fingers crossed for them.

still standing poster

 

A few days catching up in the office now awaits after a day off to recharge my batteries, I very much hope to see you at one of the tour venues.

Please follow our blogs as we journey and do keep in touch

sue lewis

 

The madness kicking in ..

The Move Image Paul Trask

The Move
Image Paul Trask

Once again the Ffin Dance Faktry Festival is fast approaching and we have all been working tirelessly preparing for not only the 2014 Easter Dance Faktry Festival but also the A-Level Dance qualification with the FFIN DANCE Outreach and Education programme.

This year the festival has seemed to sneak up on us and there is only a matter of days until the madness of festival week kicks in. Members of all the County Dance groups have been rehearsing for the show, especially both the Blaenau Gwent County Youth Dance Companies who will be performing their new work at the festival this year. At Move (senior county company) we have had a chance to prepare our new work “Perseid” at a number of events that FFIN DANCE has been invited to show their work at this season  This has been a great opportunity for the other youth dancers and myself to really show what youth dancers are capable of achieving.

This year’s show is destined to be the most successful yet and I am very excited to be able to perform once again in one of the local theatres in the county. This year’s faktry festival is especially exciting for me as the senior dancer of The Move as we will be working alongside FFIN DANCE company dancers Catrin and Megan at the Easter Dance Faktry Intensives which is a high-energy series of technical master classes. This once again, has been one of the busiest times of the calendar for The Move and for the Faktry. Let’s hope we survive the week !!

Louis Norman, Senior Dancer The Move

The dance faktry in full flow

Royal Visit

Royal Visit

This week I’ve been speaking to lots of people and they all seem to think the same, that March has gone absolutely crazy, giving a little credence to the Mad March Hare Theory.  January and February always take time to get going after the lull of the Christmas holidays and the New Year sluggish return to work, with March beginning the season all over again.  But this year seems even more so.
Those of you who read my last blog will know that this week has been rather special in that we have had a Royal visit by HRH Prince Edward, The Earl of Wessex.  I was asked to create a site specific piece of work to celebrate the opening of the Diamond Jubilee Square at St Michel’s Church in Abertillery a while back now and decided it would be rather fitting to work with 4 of our ffin dance faktry senior dancers.  They are great youth ambassadors for our outreach programme, the Earl really enjoyed their performance (see image above)
The day after that we received a cheque for £2300 from Tai Calon Community Housing towards working with our youth volunteers, New Ground, working to provide dance classes for children in the community who find it difficult to existing dance classes due to financial constraints and travel issues.
On Saturday, I will be travelling down to Monmouth with our Chair of the Board, Sharon Smith, together with 3 of our youth ambassadors (Gemma, Emma and Louis) to a ‘dragons den’ style event organised by the Gwent Police.  They will be making a presentation together with 19 other community organisations to pitch for a share of the Gwent High Sheriff’s Community Fund: if successful the ffin dance faktry will be able to provide even more free dance activities for children and young people in Blaenau Gwent.
Then to round off a wonderful week of youth activity, I will be accompanying 2 of our youth dancers from our A Level Dance class to St Woolos Cathedral in Newport, where they will perform some of their own choreography at the 10th anniversary celebration of the Youth Eucharist Service (YES)

If you would like to help us in our attempt to create more opportunities for children and young people in Blaenau Gwent please follow this link for our current on line giving project


sue lewis

Pleased as punch

Earl of WessexThe company opened the Still Standing season on Tuesday at Coleg Y Cymoedd, Nantgarw in Cardiff, and the show met and exceeded all of my expectations with a marvellous performance and excellent audience.

Opening nights are notoriously edgy and can very often veer off into unchartered waters, but this one was a cracker!
The venue is one which we visited last season, and despite not being a traditional theatre setting, really shows contemporary dance very well in terms of shape and pattern.  It’s up close and very personal which works well with our rep this season; particularly well I think with Catrin Lewis’s ‘Stand Up Straight’, a piece which explores the physicality of Vertigo.
We’ve spent a lot of time in the studio this season perfecting timing for ensemble work, and it has paid off – ‘Synapsequence’ was superb.  Created by Gary Lambert in 2012 for the company, there are a number of very tricky double duets which require precision and accuracy as well as superior technique, so the dancers are really on edge.  Pleased to say they rose to the occasion.

My new work, ‘Fractal’, was aired for the first time on opening night, it actually opened the show being the first piece on the bill.  It relies heavily on musicality and the dancer’s technical ability to carry it through or it can look a bit wan.  The lighting that Mark Read and I created is very simple and grows and decays with the musical episodes, giving the audience a sense of regeneration and development interspersed with resting periods.
Pleased to say that the FFIN A Level students noticed this without prompting!

So première over and Megan and Catrin will be continuing their London sessions with Gary who is making a new duet for first viewing in May 2014
Effie and Mike working on some other projects and I am Wales based running the dance faktry and our youth volunteers project New Ground.  Four of our senior youth dancers with the dance faktry will be performing my work for the Earl of Wessex this coming Monday at the dedication service of Diamond Jubilee Square at St Michael’s Church Abertillery, a real honour for us all.
Next up is Easter Intensives and the Easter Dance Faktry Festival in April, then back on the road again.

Never a dull moment, hope you can catch us at a venue near you very soon …

Excitement in the air

Rachel picAs the winter dance faktry festival rehearsals begins to step up and everybody starts working even harder, there’s always that excitement and eagerness that fills the air.

Being involved with the winter dance faktry festival this year I will be performing with Combination Dance and I’ll be performing a solo piece of my own. For the Combination piece I will be performing with a variety of dancers; we enjoy rehearsals as there is always laughter involved but we are keen to make sure everything is right for the piece.
My very first solo choreography will be showing what I have learnt from studying A Level Dance with FFIN DANCE. I’ve enjoyed learning about the different ways of developing a motif and structuring my own choreography, I never realised how important all the little details were!  I’ve really enjoyed learning about all the topics and music making, I come home every day thinking what can there be to learn next? There is always something new it never ends and I love it!
I am nervous but with a mixture of excitement at the same time to be part of the winter dance faktry festival show this Saturday – and now I can not wait for the show to begin!

Let’s show them what we can do guys!
Rachel

Busy times

_PRT0240I am currently preparing for the winter
dance faktry festival with the Blaenau Gwent county youth dance company The Move, Combination
Dance and I’m also creating a solo as part of my A level Dance course with FFIN DANCE.

It is a very busy time for me and my fellow dancers because we are all working hard and doing lots of rehearsals to ensure our pieces are ready and polished for the show.
It is very tiring preparing for a show but it is also very enjoyable and rewarding. It is especially rewarding to see the pieces progress as the show gets closer.
With The Move I am performing a piece called Distort which we have performed before: we have worked on developing the piece and getting back to the original intention of the piece ready for the faktry festival performance. In Combination Dance, we are working on a new piece so it will be exciting to perform it for one of the first times. Finally I have been creating a solo piece which is to help
with my A Level Dance studies with Ffin Dance. Making my first solo piece has been very challenging but I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience of making my own choreography although it’s been particularly hard at times. There’s a lot involved – much more involved in making your own piece than I ever thought!
There’s the lights,costume,title all things I’ve never considered when dancing before. It’s very rewarding to see it all starting to come together now and I am looking forward to performing my solo.

I’m really looking forward to the show next week and so are my
fellow dancers.

Gemma Two hearts

New A Level Course Gets Under Way

IMG_2616It’s been about 7 years since I last taught A Level Dance, and how I’ve missed it!

I introduced the course into Ebbw Vale Senior Comprehensive School back in the 80’s where I was Head of the Dance Dept.  It was a successful course back then and has continued to grow and develop, becoming the fastest growing A Level in the UK in recent years.  It covers all aspects of dance from choreography, healthy eating for dancers, anatomy, dance performance, and lots more.
Sadly when I left the school, Dance was no longer included in the curriculum at any level.

For the past 2 years, I have been researching the demand for the course and attempting to persuade the post 16 education providers in Blaenau Gwent to partner FFIN DANCE to facilitate the course for young people in the Borough.  This has proved to be an exceptionally negative past time.  However, all things come to those who wait!
We have joined with Abertillery Comprehensive School who is our registered centre, and have made this course possible to young and adult learners on their own doorstep.  We are delivering the course from our home studio in The Met, Abertillery and our first session took place last evening.

The moral of the story?  Be brave – leap in faith and make your own destiny ..

Sue Lewis

AS/A Level Dance Course

A Level flyerWe are pretty excited to announce that the ffin dance faktry will be offering AS/A Level Dance from September 2013.

We will be working from our home base at The Met Centre in Abertillery, where we have a lovely large studio space together with a conference room with great wi-fi facilities and large picture windows overlooking the hillsides of the Tillery Valley.  The written examination will be taken at nearby Abertillery Comprehensive School.
The course will cover aspects of dance performance, choreography, anatomy for dancers, appreciation of dance works, dance history and healthy lifestyle for dancers.

Learners will be expected to participate in high level dance activities outside of the course, thereby giving additionality to their studies.

FFIN DANCE Missing Pages Image Paul Trask

FFIN DANCE
Missing Pages
Image Paul Trask

The course will commence on September 19th and will run regularly in term times from 7.15  – 9.30pm.
We have already attracted sponsorship from Tudor Brewery of Abertillery who will offer a free scholarship to one lucky learner for a whole year, we will also be approaching other companies to follow suit.
We are most happy that we can now offer a formal qualification in Dance for learners to turn their talents into points for University or gain access to professional Dance training conservatoires.

Course fees will include all exam entrance costs and tutor fees for one year, registration has now started and we will take a maximum of 15 learners to ensure standards of excellence throughout.

If you would like to contact us feel free to e mail info@ffindance.co.uk or text 07854 910926

AS and A Level Dance with FFIN

_PRT0207It is highly likely that from September 2013, FFIN DANCE will be providing AS and A Level Dance to private students.  We at FFIN are very much concerned that there is no formal provision for students wishing to pursue Dance at A Level in Blaenau Gwent, consequently we are waiting for AQA to approve us as a centre and we will be recruiting in the next 2 months.  For further information, please contact us on info@ffindance.co.uk or text 07854 910926