INYD Irish National Youth Dance
A lecture by Anica Louw
7th November
The only way I can feel personally successful as a dance educator, is if I can see a real link between dance education and professional dance.
Teenage students must also see and feel this link: a real bridge between them and the professional world, a world that is in their reach and not something they cannot imagine.
Every attempt I make in teaching and creating courses is to keep these goals and links clear.
How can I, as a dance educator, prepare students to audition successfully for 3rdlevel dance education colleges, prepare them to be on the road to become a dance artist, and to become an educated intelligent member of a healthy dance audience.
I could not teach dance or facilitated dance courses and be satisfied that they were taught posture, discipline, social behaviour, teamwork, dedication and so forth. Because in my heart I know that plenty of other disciplines like Taekwondoo, yoga, gymnastics, to name a few, can do all those things and more.
But what they cannot teach, is the art of dancing and dance making.
Story telling, music and folk dancing are completely part and parcel of what it is to be Irish. And therefor it is not surprising for Ireland to produce important choreographers? Choreographers who are well known in Europe and America (less so in Ireland!). When doors open magically for me by inexcusably dropping names like Michael Keegan Dolan, or Marguerite Donlon, any where in Europe, my chest grows with pride. They just happen to have Longford links as well!
So how does all this fit in with creating a youth dance ensemble? Well, perfectly:
These days it is crucial for teachers to recognise that choreographers take it for granted that dancers would contribute to the creative process of making a new dance piece. This dance making/ the ability to improvise must begin at an early stage to prepare them for professional life. More and more demands are made on dancers to contribute to the development of the dance movement and material. Dance students must be encouraged to be part of the creative process, able to change, to reinvent themselves, and not categorised.
This important part of a dancer’s education is called on when they do their audition for 3rdlevel education. It is also the most important ingredient that a company director looks for in a new potential dancer auditioning for a place in their dance company. ( use Sarah as example)
My students have been involved with European auditions where they were given an hour’s ballet class and 10 minutes of improvisation as the initial part of selection.
How on earth can the panel judge on that? (Especially as a lot of applicants would never have done ballet?!).
They choose people who are:
extremely musical,
who can follow and adapt quickly
who can remember movements,
who are supple all over,
who have a healthy degree of turnout,
who can turn, spin, jump and move,
who are working like blazes at the back of class and give it everything when asked to execute,
who is not afraid (rather go wrong than not try at all).
Apply all these points together to any ballet student and if they all fit, you have a probable candidate.
And in the improvisation session that follows all these things will be revealed, and to crown it all, the ability to make things up as you go, to respond instinctively to music and other people.
When you have past this stage you, are allowed to show your minute and a half prepared piece, where hopefully your artistry, style and performance come through.
This is what we try to teach and convey to The National Youth Dance Company.
In practical terms we do the following:
Four teachers teach at 16 residential weekends, which run from January to June. For strong technique we teach RAD vocational graded syllabi,
For dance style RAD Upper grades
For rhythm and musical theatre ISTD vocational graded syllabi,
and for strength, centering and endurance a Contemporary dance class.
The Contemporary teacher is usually the professional choreographer. She /he is also normally a well-known Irish choreographer and dancer.( This is where the important links start happening). In these workshops they learn to choreograph, improvise, contact improvisation and partnering.
For stage presence, stage personality, theatre skills, they take part in the backstage theatre dance awards.
They also get the opportunity to work with other professional artists creating the piece with them. ( examples)
They attend all visiting companies’ workshops and performances, thereby learning at first hand, the skills that are expected from them and repertoire from the company. The dancers sit down and chat to them. The students get the chance to ask important questions like: where did you study dance, how old were you etc.?
LD dance organises NYD to travel to see important companies performing in Dublin. For example their patron’s latest work Giselle, or Mark Morris and Rosas.
We are 6 years old, and have received gratefully a small Arts Council grant for the last two years. All the students that have auditioned for 3rd level places in the last 5 years have been successful.
Saturday, 31 March 2007
Shawbrook in the Eighties by Diana Theodores
Shawbrook in the Eighties,
an extract from: Report - Dance Critic in Ireland by Diana Theodores
First published in: Dance Chronicle, 1996
A day after returning from the sacred vegetarian rites on Innishrath it did not seem strange to receive a call from a woman with an Afrikaans accent from County Longford asking if I would come to a ballet recital on her dairy farm in Lenamore; she was quick to add that she was an avid reader of my dance column. Visions of bovine ballerinas had me in fits of giggles as I left the next day. Eamonn, the photographer, was to follow.
What greeted me upon arrival at the farm was a populace swanning around in summery gala finery, drinks in hand, taped music filling loudspeakers and lulling the cows, and a gorgeous little barn theatre containing sprung maple floors, a hydraulic-winched tiered seating system, full theatre lighting, and a herd of fledgling ballerinas seated on bales of hay, warming up near the barbecue fire for the performance. “Shawbrook” Ballet Farm was opened June 19, 1987, by Anica Dawson and her dairy farmer husband, Phillip. According to Anica, it all started when she watched the Rose of Tralee contest on television and thought that the foreign contestants looked so poised compared with the Irish girls parading down the aisle, whom she thought looked dreadful. Her analysis was that they needed ballet training. With poise as her purpose she went hauling her piano around in her husband’s cattle trailer (he was secretary of the Friesian Breeder’s Club) and setting up ballet classes in any available hall in Longford. I ran a long color supplement feature piece on “Shawbrook,” liberally accompanied by Eamonn’s photographs.
The piece helped to launch the venture and today it is the home of a well-established Ballet International Summer School, with one hundred students, dormitories, visiting teachers, and R.A.D. ballet training throughout the year.
an extract from: Report - Dance Critic in Ireland by Diana Theodores
First published in: Dance Chronicle, 1996
A day after returning from the sacred vegetarian rites on Innishrath it did not seem strange to receive a call from a woman with an Afrikaans accent from County Longford asking if I would come to a ballet recital on her dairy farm in Lenamore; she was quick to add that she was an avid reader of my dance column. Visions of bovine ballerinas had me in fits of giggles as I left the next day. Eamonn, the photographer, was to follow.
What greeted me upon arrival at the farm was a populace swanning around in summery gala finery, drinks in hand, taped music filling loudspeakers and lulling the cows, and a gorgeous little barn theatre containing sprung maple floors, a hydraulic-winched tiered seating system, full theatre lighting, and a herd of fledgling ballerinas seated on bales of hay, warming up near the barbecue fire for the performance. “Shawbrook” Ballet Farm was opened June 19, 1987, by Anica Dawson and her dairy farmer husband, Phillip. According to Anica, it all started when she watched the Rose of Tralee contest on television and thought that the foreign contestants looked so poised compared with the Irish girls parading down the aisle, whom she thought looked dreadful. Her analysis was that they needed ballet training. With poise as her purpose she went hauling her piano around in her husband’s cattle trailer (he was secretary of the Friesian Breeder’s Club) and setting up ballet classes in any available hall in Longford. I ran a long color supplement feature piece on “Shawbrook,” liberally accompanied by Eamonn’s photographs.
The piece helped to launch the venture and today it is the home of a well-established Ballet International Summer School, with one hundred students, dormitories, visiting teachers, and R.A.D. ballet training throughout the year.
Shawbrook Show 1999. Article - Irish Times
8 APRIL 1999
Out of Africa and in to BallymahonLongford students' show tells the personal story of a journey from South Africa to LongfordBy SEAN MAC CONNELL
The sounds of ethnic African music will be heard in Ballymahon, Co Longford for three days next month when the Transition Year students of the Mercy Secondary School stage a show called My Journey.
The show was written and will be produced by South African-born Anica Louw, who is the artist in residence at the school near her own ballet school and theatre.
All the Transition Year students will be involved in the production, designing the sets, the tickets and all the administration.
Earlier this week, Anica explained that she had always wanted to tell what it was like to grow up as a white person in South Africa.
"It was one of the most isolated places in the world and we were denied outside contact with the real world. There was no television or other external influences," she said.
"We were also very regimented. That is why in the show all the whites are dressed in stiff and starched uniforms, the uniforms we used to wear," she said.
"The contrast between that starched and scrubbed look and the easy, colourful way the Africans dressed was astonishing and sticks with me to this day," she said.
Anica lived in South Africa and studied theatre at college and taught Afrikaans. She met her future husband, Philip Dawson, when he visited South Africa.
In the mid-1970s her thirst to learn about the rest of the world sent her on a voyage of discovery and 20 years ago she came to visit Philip in Dublin and married and settled here.
Philip runs a dairy farm in Leagan, Co Longford, and it was there Anica set up her ballet school and theatre where she teaches people from all over the country and abroad at the Shawbrook School of Ballet.
"I decided to take a short time out and it was during that time I decided to write My Journey. It is autobiographical but I think people will enjoy it," she said.
She said the show starts with Anica, aged three, taking ballet classes from her teacher, Miss Broder. It charts the rest of her time in Africa during the troubled apartheid years.
"I used authentic African music which is wonderful and the boere musiek or farmers' music which I heard as a child. The students in Ballymahon love it," she said.
"I create a window on my former life and I want people to see how it was for me then as I grew up," she said.
Anica has seen many changes since she came to Ireland over 20 years ago and not all of them are to her liking.
"I came here for the relaxed pace of life, the friendly ways of the people and the lack of commercialism. It was a very safe country then," she said.
"I fear the Celtic Tiger has caught up with us and it has changed dramatically in the time I have been here," she said.
The show will be staged in the Backstage Theatre, Longford, on Monday 17th, Tuesday 18th and Wednesday 19th May. The telephone number of the theatre is 043-47888 and the school 090-232267.
© The Irish Times
Out of Africa and in to BallymahonLongford students' show tells the personal story of a journey from South Africa to LongfordBy SEAN MAC CONNELL
The sounds of ethnic African music will be heard in Ballymahon, Co Longford for three days next month when the Transition Year students of the Mercy Secondary School stage a show called My Journey.
The show was written and will be produced by South African-born Anica Louw, who is the artist in residence at the school near her own ballet school and theatre.
All the Transition Year students will be involved in the production, designing the sets, the tickets and all the administration.
Earlier this week, Anica explained that she had always wanted to tell what it was like to grow up as a white person in South Africa.
"It was one of the most isolated places in the world and we were denied outside contact with the real world. There was no television or other external influences," she said.
"We were also very regimented. That is why in the show all the whites are dressed in stiff and starched uniforms, the uniforms we used to wear," she said.
"The contrast between that starched and scrubbed look and the easy, colourful way the Africans dressed was astonishing and sticks with me to this day," she said.
Anica lived in South Africa and studied theatre at college and taught Afrikaans. She met her future husband, Philip Dawson, when he visited South Africa.
In the mid-1970s her thirst to learn about the rest of the world sent her on a voyage of discovery and 20 years ago she came to visit Philip in Dublin and married and settled here.
Philip runs a dairy farm in Leagan, Co Longford, and it was there Anica set up her ballet school and theatre where she teaches people from all over the country and abroad at the Shawbrook School of Ballet.
"I decided to take a short time out and it was during that time I decided to write My Journey. It is autobiographical but I think people will enjoy it," she said.
She said the show starts with Anica, aged three, taking ballet classes from her teacher, Miss Broder. It charts the rest of her time in Africa during the troubled apartheid years.
"I used authentic African music which is wonderful and the boere musiek or farmers' music which I heard as a child. The students in Ballymahon love it," she said.
"I create a window on my former life and I want people to see how it was for me then as I grew up," she said.
Anica has seen many changes since she came to Ireland over 20 years ago and not all of them are to her liking.
"I came here for the relaxed pace of life, the friendly ways of the people and the lack of commercialism. It was a very safe country then," she said.
"I fear the Celtic Tiger has caught up with us and it has changed dramatically in the time I have been here," she said.
The show will be staged in the Backstage Theatre, Longford, on Monday 17th, Tuesday 18th and Wednesday 19th May. The telephone number of the theatre is 043-47888 and the school 090-232267.
© The Irish Times
Shawbrook Review, Aug 2000 - Irish Times
August 15 2000
Longford/Berlin ConnectionBackstage Theatre, Longford
By CAROLYN SWIFT
On Saturday night a large and enthusiastic audience at the Backstage Theatre, Longford, had first sight of HugBarrog, a specially commissioned piece by Marguerite Donlon which will open the Berlin Dance Festival on September 5th. Shown as a work still in progress, it featured guest artist Anne-Marie Warburton from Berlin with Orla McFeely, Rebecca Reilly, Olwen Grindley and Lisa McLoughlin, backed by six students from the Shawbrook Summer School.
To a bluesy score by saxophonist Claas Willeke, who also ably compered the evening, and against film by photographer Oliver Moest projected on to five white hanging cloths, the piece extended the dancers, using almost every muscle in their bodies as they intermingled their limbs with the athleticism of wrestlers and the delicacy of weavers.
There was also much humour derived from a variety of physical greetings, including the old variety gag in which a single person portrays an embracing couple. Donlon herself, with Warburton, danced in Drumai, developed from rhythm-training for the ten Irish dancers who drummed on oil cans and a milk churn.
She is a beautiful dancer and, as she weaved and twined, it was possible to identify some of the vocabulary which informed her choreography for HugBarrog.
Further contributions were demonstrated in the Workshop Presentation which opened the programme.
Following a ballet class which continued while the audience arrived, the choreographer explained the alphabetical improvisation used to create the contorted body movement. We then saw how these were used, as well as a short solo from Different Directions, created by Donlon last spring. An interesting evening, showing continued improvement in Shawbrook Summer School standards.
© The Irish Times
Longford/Berlin ConnectionBackstage Theatre, Longford
By CAROLYN SWIFT
On Saturday night a large and enthusiastic audience at the Backstage Theatre, Longford, had first sight of HugBarrog, a specially commissioned piece by Marguerite Donlon which will open the Berlin Dance Festival on September 5th. Shown as a work still in progress, it featured guest artist Anne-Marie Warburton from Berlin with Orla McFeely, Rebecca Reilly, Olwen Grindley and Lisa McLoughlin, backed by six students from the Shawbrook Summer School.
To a bluesy score by saxophonist Claas Willeke, who also ably compered the evening, and against film by photographer Oliver Moest projected on to five white hanging cloths, the piece extended the dancers, using almost every muscle in their bodies as they intermingled their limbs with the athleticism of wrestlers and the delicacy of weavers.
There was also much humour derived from a variety of physical greetings, including the old variety gag in which a single person portrays an embracing couple. Donlon herself, with Warburton, danced in Drumai, developed from rhythm-training for the ten Irish dancers who drummed on oil cans and a milk churn.
She is a beautiful dancer and, as she weaved and twined, it was possible to identify some of the vocabulary which informed her choreography for HugBarrog.
Further contributions were demonstrated in the Workshop Presentation which opened the programme.
Following a ballet class which continued while the audience arrived, the choreographer explained the alphabetical improvisation used to create the contorted body movement. We then saw how these were used, as well as a short solo from Different Directions, created by Donlon last spring. An interesting evening, showing continued improvement in Shawbrook Summer School standards.
© The Irish Times
Shawbrook Review, Aug 1999 - Irish Times
Aug 17th 1999
Taking FlightBackstage Theatre, Longford
By CAROLYN SWIFT
On Saturday night, six athletic dancers of ABCD Company worked themselves up for takeoff at the Backstage Theatre, Longford. Singly and in pairs, to the sound of roaring engines, they climbed and dived, banked, looped the loop and flew in formation during Sharon Donaldson's Taking Flight, the silver trousers of the men and tops of the women glinting metallically like planes catching the sun. It was an attractive piece, though lacking shape and development.
To celebrate the 15th Shawbrook Summer School, LD Dance brought ABCD from Leeds, and Donaldson choreographed a piece for the 10 dancers from Shawbrook's Course E, whose showcase opened the programme. Called What Came Be- fore Will Come Again and set to the music of Sacred Spirit and Artcore, it seemed to inspire this year's students to respond brilliantly to the challenges the piece presented. Indeed, the general standard was higher than any previous Shawbrook Showcase I have seen, and Anica Louw and Philip Dawson of LD Dance deserve congratulations for this achievement.
The students were well served by all their choreographers. Extracts from ballet master Niall McMahon's Celtic Mood to Bill Whelan's Damhsa san Amhan, which opened with a delightful duet by Sarah Reynolds and Robert Jackson (the sole professional in the cast), fully extended the dancers, as has not always been the case in past showcases. So, too, did jazz teacher Eric Carpenter's O, to TILT's Seduction of Orpheus, enabling the dancers to demonstrate ability and versatility. They were also fortunate to have as experienced an accompanist as Shaun Holmes.
© The Irish Times
Taking FlightBackstage Theatre, Longford
By CAROLYN SWIFT
On Saturday night, six athletic dancers of ABCD Company worked themselves up for takeoff at the Backstage Theatre, Longford. Singly and in pairs, to the sound of roaring engines, they climbed and dived, banked, looped the loop and flew in formation during Sharon Donaldson's Taking Flight, the silver trousers of the men and tops of the women glinting metallically like planes catching the sun. It was an attractive piece, though lacking shape and development.
To celebrate the 15th Shawbrook Summer School, LD Dance brought ABCD from Leeds, and Donaldson choreographed a piece for the 10 dancers from Shawbrook's Course E, whose showcase opened the programme. Called What Came Be- fore Will Come Again and set to the music of Sacred Spirit and Artcore, it seemed to inspire this year's students to respond brilliantly to the challenges the piece presented. Indeed, the general standard was higher than any previous Shawbrook Showcase I have seen, and Anica Louw and Philip Dawson of LD Dance deserve congratulations for this achievement.
The students were well served by all their choreographers. Extracts from ballet master Niall McMahon's Celtic Mood to Bill Whelan's Damhsa san Amhan, which opened with a delightful duet by Sarah Reynolds and Robert Jackson (the sole professional in the cast), fully extended the dancers, as has not always been the case in past showcases. So, too, did jazz teacher Eric Carpenter's O, to TILT's Seduction of Orpheus, enabling the dancers to demonstrate ability and versatility. They were also fortunate to have as experienced an accompanist as Shaun Holmes.
© The Irish Times
Shawbrook Review, Aug 1998. Irish Times
Shawbrook ShowcaseBackstage Theatre, Longford
By CAROLYN SWIFT
19 Aug 1998
On Saturday at the Backstage Theatre, Longford, for the third year running, Anica Louw presented the results of her week-long Arts Council-sponsored Choreographic-Composer Workshop for young Irish professional and graduate dancers. Once again this revealed the wealth of dancing potential which sadly has little or no outlet for its talents.
The ambitious objective of the Workshop is to produce a new work within a week, which this year resulted in a contemporary piece by Amanda Gough, Touched, to a percussion score performed live on stage by composer Gary Hammond. The nine dancers suggested sculptural forms in groups of three or singly, with attractively-danced solos by Lise McLoughlin and Rionach Ni Neill. The latter also gave a fine performance of the interesting and demanding solo by Daniel Larieu to Stravinsky's Violin Concerto Aria No.2: Pour L'Instant, an Homage to Nijinsky. She was less successful as choreographer of Solo For Frances to the music of Plague Monkeys, though Frances McKee worked well in it and it could improve with further work as, like all the original pieces, it was created in a week.A fourth contemporary piece was Sue Hawksley's Windeater to music by Vershki da Koreshki. For the full group, it seemed to lack motivation and shape, while the only piece in which ballet figured was an embarrassing attempt at satire by Stuart Beckett to Nat King Cole's Let There Be Love.
Irish Times Copyright
By CAROLYN SWIFT
19 Aug 1998
On Saturday at the Backstage Theatre, Longford, for the third year running, Anica Louw presented the results of her week-long Arts Council-sponsored Choreographic-Composer Workshop for young Irish professional and graduate dancers. Once again this revealed the wealth of dancing potential which sadly has little or no outlet for its talents.
The ambitious objective of the Workshop is to produce a new work within a week, which this year resulted in a contemporary piece by Amanda Gough, Touched, to a percussion score performed live on stage by composer Gary Hammond. The nine dancers suggested sculptural forms in groups of three or singly, with attractively-danced solos by Lise McLoughlin and Rionach Ni Neill. The latter also gave a fine performance of the interesting and demanding solo by Daniel Larieu to Stravinsky's Violin Concerto Aria No.2: Pour L'Instant, an Homage to Nijinsky. She was less successful as choreographer of Solo For Frances to the music of Plague Monkeys, though Frances McKee worked well in it and it could improve with further work as, like all the original pieces, it was created in a week.A fourth contemporary piece was Sue Hawksley's Windeater to music by Vershki da Koreshki. For the full group, it seemed to lack motivation and shape, while the only piece in which ballet figured was an embarrassing attempt at satire by Stuart Beckett to Nat King Cole's Let There Be Love.
Irish Times Copyright
August 1996 Choreographic Workshop in Backstage and Shawbrook. Irish Times
Choreographic Workshop Backstage Theatre, Longford
By CAROLYN SWIFT
THE performance developed during a five day Arts Council sponsored work shop at the Shawbrook Summer School, seen at the Backstage Theatre in Longford last Saturday night, proved Ireland could have a creditable permanent dance company if someone of the calibre of Shawbrook director Anica Louw assembled it with Arts Council funding.
Supported by one boy from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds, 10 girls who trained in Ireland, but are mostly completing dance training in England, Germany or Russia (helped by Arts Council bursaries), achieved in five days a higher standard than several dance companies currently receiving Arts Council funding. And only the splendid Orla McFeeley, the White Cat in last year's UK tour of Cats, is as yet professional.
The introductory class included ballet and contemporary dance for, though the dancers had specialised in one or other dance style, all had trained in both, essential for a company in a small country. Next came a light hearted pas de deu, An Excerpt from Paul Nyman's film score for The Piano, choreographed and danced by contemporary dance teacher Clare Belgion. She was more than adequately partnered by Jonathan Poole, who also showed choreographic talent in his well danced solo to Sheryl Crow's Strong Enough. This was followed by Swan Connection, a delightful satire for full cast of Tchaikovsky's Dance of the Little Swans by ballet mistress Gina Long.
The excellent workshop piece itself, The Prophecy, by choreographer Sonia Rafferty, to exciting music by her husband, Philip Chambon, was led by the Pina Bausch trained student, Olwen Grindley, and clearly showed the strength of the company. The fine accompanist for class and performance was Shaun Holmes.
© The Irish Times
By CAROLYN SWIFT
THE performance developed during a five day Arts Council sponsored work shop at the Shawbrook Summer School, seen at the Backstage Theatre in Longford last Saturday night, proved Ireland could have a creditable permanent dance company if someone of the calibre of Shawbrook director Anica Louw assembled it with Arts Council funding.
Supported by one boy from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds, 10 girls who trained in Ireland, but are mostly completing dance training in England, Germany or Russia (helped by Arts Council bursaries), achieved in five days a higher standard than several dance companies currently receiving Arts Council funding. And only the splendid Orla McFeeley, the White Cat in last year's UK tour of Cats, is as yet professional.
The introductory class included ballet and contemporary dance for, though the dancers had specialised in one or other dance style, all had trained in both, essential for a company in a small country. Next came a light hearted pas de deu, An Excerpt from Paul Nyman's film score for The Piano, choreographed and danced by contemporary dance teacher Clare Belgion. She was more than adequately partnered by Jonathan Poole, who also showed choreographic talent in his well danced solo to Sheryl Crow's Strong Enough. This was followed by Swan Connection, a delightful satire for full cast of Tchaikovsky's Dance of the Little Swans by ballet mistress Gina Long.
The excellent workshop piece itself, The Prophecy, by choreographer Sonia Rafferty, to exciting music by her husband, Philip Chambon, was led by the Pina Bausch trained student, Olwen Grindley, and clearly showed the strength of the company. The fine accompanist for class and performance was Shaun Holmes.
© The Irish Times
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