Northumbria dance students make for moving mannequins
Shoppers and visitors to Newcastle city centre will see mannequins come to life when Northumbria University students become part of Fenwick’s window display. |
Their performances, which will take place between 10am and 4pm today (Tuesday, 26 May), form part of their assessments on the Improvisation and the Body module. As part of their course, the group has created dance performances in a range of public spaces across the region, including the Angel of the North, the Millennium Bridge and Newcastle Central Station.
Programme leader Tamara Ashley said: “At the Angel of the North there was a school class on a trip and several bikers. They all stopped to watch the students perform. It was very exciting.”
The students are encouraged to pursue their own ideas at this stage. The performances they create are their first statement as an artist. The Dance Choreography degree, which is taught in the School of Arts and Social Sciences, is run in collaboration with Dance City – the National Dance Agency for the North East of England. This internationally unique relationship ensures that the curriculum and course content is in constant dialogue with professional performance practices and thus enables students to engage with current and cutting-edge approaches to contemporary dance.
Members of the public are also invited to watch dance and movement performance pieces created and choreographed by final year students on the BA Honours Dance Choreography degree. The 20 performances, each lasting 15 minutes, will also run over three evenings next week at Dance City. The work represents the culmination of the three-year degree course run by the University in conjunction with Dance City.
The performances have all been developed from concepts devised by each individual final-year student, who are also responsible for the lighting and production of their pieces.
Tamara Ashley said: “This project allows the students to not only demonstrate their creative development, but also places them in a project management role. They must create a performance from concept to realisation and production. This helps them to develop their communication skills in directing and motivating others and are very transferable skills.”
Many of the graduates from the course have already met with success in the arts and dance world, including Molly Hodkinson, a 2006 graduate, who is currently dancing with the Surface Area Dance Theatre, and Jamila Rodriguez, who received a Leverhulme scholarship to study an MA in South Africa.
The Dance Performance degree shows will take place this week in Dance City’s Dance Lab on the 27th, 28th and 29th of May, at 7.30pm.
Tickets, priced £5 (£4 concessions), are now on sale and available from Dance City, in Temple Street, at www.dancecity.co.uk or by calling 0191 261 0505.
Date posted: May 22, 2009
