Richard Alston Dance Masterclass Tuesday 24th February 2009

On Tuesday 25th Feb Megan from the Richard Alston dance company came to deliver a 3 hour masterclass to students from years 9-12. Students were really technically challenged from the first exercise in the warm up to the last movement of the final repertoire piece taught.

The level of musicality required by the dancers is huge. Students really appreciated this as they started to counterpoint both phrases they had been taught. They had to really listen to the highlights in the music in order to time their moments of elevation and pause.

It was excellent having Overdrive to watch. This inspired students and emphasised the challenging level at which they were working.

Megan delivered material in an informative way continually discussing how Richard works with his dancers and expectations in relation to expressive skill including focus and projection. She also spoke at the end about her own training. It was interesting and encouraging for students to learn that she had not been formally taught dance at a dancing school. Her only experience of dance had been through GCSE and A Level before she auditioned for Laban. She was a beautiful dancer to watch which helped students work harder when they performed for each other.

Students were really treated as though they were dancers in the company which really raised their level of professional response. They were focused and motivated throughout and the quality of work produced was excellent.

The level of enthusiasm and adrenaline was infectious. James Ireland commented on how much he liked the style of Alston feeling that it really suited him. Other comments included ‘I have some great ideas for my own choreography’ ‘It has inspired me and I’ve learnt a lot of new movement’‘