Dance - a Beacon Department

Sarah trained at the University of Surrey on the BA (Hons) Dance and Culture degree course. She gained her PGCE in Secondary Dance Education from the University of Brighton. Sarah established A Level Dance in 2004 at King Edward VI School in Bury St Edmunds, achieving ‘Best A Level Dance results in any English School’ and ‘Best A Level Dance results in any non-selective state school’ awarded by The Good Schools Guide in 2005. Sarah is also an assistant to the executive committee of the National Dance Teachers Association, writing articles for their publication Dance Matters.

Sharing Success: Opportunities to share good practice among members of the teaching profession.

Read reviews of past events for this subject:

Dance Master Class >>

AS/A2 DANCE MASTER CLASS
March 2008

A Level Dance students from Sir William Borlases Grammar School, Furze Platt and Bicester Community College took part in a Dance Master Class on Wednesday 12th March. The first of three sessions challenged students to reach their technical potential. It introduced a wide range of movement vocabulary and encouraged students to remain aware of physical and interpretative skills as outlined by the exam board. The second session introduced improvisational tasks based on a text stimulus. Students identified words within the text to transpose into dance ideas and spent time exploring possible movements. Following a series of structured tasks, students built a phrase that communicated the stimulus successfully. The final session built on the movements created by students through improvisation. It encouraged students to interact with other dancers to create a varied and layered group dance piece.

"I felt I could use a lot of the movements created today as inspiration for my AS Level solo piece."

"The energy from the teacher really helped inspire me to work hard. Had a terrific day, hard but very fulfilling."

AS/A2 DANCE MASTER CLASS
February 2007

This master class enthused and inspired students taking their DAN1 or DAN4 and 5 examinations. The three workshop sessions comprised technical exercises that encouraged students to use their physical and interpretive skills in new ways, in addition to exploring new movement through improvisation tasks and the application of varied choreographic devices. The ultimate aim was for students to reach their full performance and choreography potential in preparation for examination.

Workshop One provided technique exercises designed to increase the use of physical and interpretive skills and apply these to performance. Workshop Two encouraged exploration of improvisational techniques to encourage and guide students’ creativity. Workshop Three incorporated choreographic devises applied to improvised phrases. Appreciation and discussion of work.