I thought it was well overdue that I wrote a blog post about what I have been up to over here (dance related, maybe I shall share my exploring cycle stories soon too) It has certainly been a busy time…

The Inclusive Arts Course (IAC) is going well. We had student assessments and termly reports due which was an interesting experience. It was so great to be able to actual set tasks and be able to take time out from teaching to observe their quality of delivery. What an insight I got into each student’s ability, and the report writing was a great way to deliver personal feedback, which is otherwise very difficult in the classes (by the time personal feedback was translated firstly into Khmer and then into sign, the rest of the class have most definitely nodded off and cooled down!).

I was so proud of all that IAC have achieve this term so I organised a wee sharing at the end of term and we made a piece, giving them opportunity to show off all the new skills that they have learnt. We all had a great time and everyone fairly enjoyed the performance! We all had a bit of a boogie together also! What a great way to end the term. Not to be a cheesey, proud teacher but they did amazing!!And here’s some pictures to prove it…..

Arts Team (the community dance company) and I have not only created and performed ‘Teach Me’ at last month’s showcase, but we have also just started working on another project that is going tour later this year. All very exciting.

Here are some pictures of them performing…

We also had some visiting artists in the form of Cambodian traditional dancers. What they do with their hands is amazing! The stretch them for hours a day to increase flexibility, which has definitely made me question what we do to ourselves as dancers; I mean we stretch our legs etc to increase flexibility too, but looking at the hands, it made me question whether this is actually good for our joints in the long run or not!

And I apologise for my terrible video editing skills (and fuzziness of the video!), but here’s a wee teaser of what the piece is like. It was the first educational dance theatre piece I’ve ever choreographed, and although it was difficult, I thoroughly enjoyed it in the end!

Epic Encounters (the professional dance company) and myself have been working on workshop skills, choreography skills and performance quality. Therefore we have been doing some editing of old pieces, looking at why we use certain exercises in workshops and creating some new, rather exciting material working towards a new piece looking at Cambodian traditional culture. I set some material, and the dancers took it as a starting point to develop more material. It’s looking great, and I can’t wait for intensive weeks to work together with them full time.

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As for me, I am now very much so looking forward to a wee break and Donald and myself are off to Bali tomorrow 🙂 I am so extremely excited! I can feel that my body is needing a very much needed break and I am sure I am going to feel so good for it coming back. I always hate stopping dancing, but a week off lets my muscles relax, rest and recover!