After a week of mayhem across the world and keeping a close eye on the updates from government, we have so far managed to keep business as usual and the pupils have been working incredibly hard as always.
The baby ballet classes have been busy as usual; these children have so much energy and we have been using that to our advantage with lots of bouncing in their bunny show dance. The Saturday morning lesson is again bursting at the seams and although a handful of pupils will be progressing on to the pre-school class in summer 2, we have also added an extra baby ballet class to that half term so there are two classes on offer. Look out for our adverts in the ToddleAbout magazines.
We have been asked by the Association of Russian Ballet and Theatre Arts (ARBTA) to demonstrate the pre-assessment character level at their next teaching seminar with two of our preliminary character pupils, as part of the launch of the new character syllabus. This should be an exciting day out at The Place, which is home to London Contemporary Dance School and a great opportunity for two of our younger dancers. So as well as learning their show dance and exam exercises, this group are now extra busy preparing for this upcoming presentation.
It has also been a busy week preparing for the show, as we liaise between Stantonbury and IPS to design the special lighting effects we want for specific scenes. This is always quite a slow process as we try and get the creative ideas translated into technical specifications for lights that can be rigged up to the specific lighting board at the theatre. I think we have now got this right, fingers crossed, and am hoping to sign off the paperwork this week. If it all works out to how it looks in my head then we should pull off some nice lighting effects for this year’s performance! In the meantime, in the classroom some of the pupils have also been learning set exercises, movements and dances for the upcoming summer examination session, which is on 12th July, in addition to their show work. Exam lists have now been released and you can collect from class.
So we shall see what this week brings and keep hoping that we do not need to close the school, but you shall all be notified if we do have to close. We are keeping up to date with government advice at all times and whilst the school stays open we are remaining vigilant with personal hygiene for all teachers and children. The ballet barres and other equipment continue to be regularly disinfected and we have tissues and anti-bacterial spray so long as the shops continue to sell it!!!
Please stay healthy and we shall see you at this week’s lessons!