There is no denying lockdown was a difficult time for our students. After months of disconnection, my own frustration grew when pubs opened before schools and clubs. It seemed insane to me that the importance of our children's education, social opprtunities and safe spaces for expression were deemed less important than the public house.
When I reached out to our teens to ask them how they were feeling they expressed their feelings of loneliness, their boredom, their confusion and mistrust of the authorities. They longed for school. They wanted to dance TOGETHER. They desperately wanted to feel CONNECTED again but as other industries opened up before ones that offered them a taste of their own lives returning to normal - they felt forgotten.
Listening to our dancers I knew this moment of history had to be documented. This story had to be shared. And so following all the guidlines of the day and overcoming the obstacles they presented.......we created "Ghost Town".
Set in the very school they were denied access to, the town centre they felt had forgotten them and then the lighthouse that represented their hope for the future. Ghost Town not only documents a period of time. It specifically encapsulates our dancers response to that time.
Our post on face book reached thousands of people (nearly 20k) to see this post follow this link: https://fb.watch/eaSFoS3fik/
Or you can watch it on our You tube page here:
See me in a Crown
Ghost Town was filmed and edited by Orchard Media Productions. Whilst definitely a worthwhile project it was an expensive one so not one we could repeat. Not one to let finance be a barrier to a performance opportunity Kim set out to learn how to edit video. I do hope you will agree that this piece choreographed by Eirinn Taylor and edited by Kim Donn allowed our dancers a wonderful performing opportunity at a time when we were locked away from the studio and each other.
This link will take you to our Facebook page to see the video.
Christmas Countdown
On the night Storm Arwen hit our shores dancers were set to perfrom in a local stores' window as part of a Christmas Late Night Shopping Event. Had the event run, our dancers would have shown off their creations in a large store front window of prestigious furniture and homeware store Maitlands .
This would have been the first time ever this would have happened in our local town, and I have no doubt would have been a very special event. Not only would our dancers have a wonderful and unique performing opportunity but we also would have helped support our town centre and local businesses.
But Storm Awren made this event too unsafe to proceed with and so we had to cancel.
But at KDance we don't give up that easy. Our dancers had worked hard at preparing for this occasion and parents were excited to see their dancers perform, so our teaching team just knew we had to find a way to show off these dances.
So we created a Christmas Countdown! Along with our good friends at Orchard Media Productions we filmed our dances and released them one by one on the run up to Christmas day. You could say we created our very own Dancing Advent Calendar.
Here are 4 of the dances we filmed. This cross section shows some of our youngest dancers to our oldest. To see more please head over to our you tube page:
The Tivoli Theatre
For the 20+ years that KDance has been running, our shows have always been held at our local Town Hall. This venue has served us well but when we first started planning our 2022 showcase it was not yet open from it's COVID closure and showed no signs of re-opening. At that point, no where else in the town presented itself as a viable option, so it looked like another year of online performing for us.........until our principal teacher had an idea.......
What if our tiny little dance school from the wee fishing town of Fraserburgh could perform in the big smoke!?!? What if we opened our show in a Victorian Theatre in Aberdeen? Could we? Dare we?
After an intial visit to The Tivoli Theatre, Kim and her team realised that this was not only a potential solution to our lack of venue problem....this was an OPPORTUNITY! So we booked it and promoted it before we could change our minds and we are so glad we did!
This was indeed a marvelous performing opportunity for so many reasons. Allow me please to tell you why.
Specatular Venue
Due to their young age, the pandemic and various circumstances many of our dancers had never been in a theatre before never mind performed in one. Taking a dance school to an unknown venue, an hour away from our studio, certainly presented us with hurdles to jump. But hearing the squeals of delight and gasps of appreciation as our dancers marveled at the beauty of our venue made it all worth while. We smiled as the dancers grew in stature as they realised they had "proper" dressing rooms and wiped tears of joy from our eyes as we watched them soak in the atmosphere and majesty of the building they got to call home for a day. We had levelled up!
Lexie is our first dancer to arrive for the big day.
Our impressive venue.
The technical team at the theatre made our dances look fantastic.
Love this image of the young dancers in the bottom right corner soaking up all the buttons and switches off stage. Perhaps their first look at the workings behind the scenes.
Dream big little one. Megan soaks up the view from stage.
Fantastic Show!! All the dancers were brilliant, and what an experience for them dancing on the stage in The Tivoli Theatre!!
Lin Mutch - Ruby's Granny
Relaxed Atmosphere
You might wonder if the impressive venue made our dancers feel intimidated? Did the strange surroundings add pressure to what can already be a nerve - racking day? I can honestly say that our dancers enjoyed every second of their day. This is thanks to our wonderful team. From the Tivoli Staff, the KDance Staff and our amazing parent helpers we were a team dedicated to supporting our young dancers be the best they possibly could be!
Our well planned SCHEDULE allowed time for every dance to have adequate rehearsal time with dedicated staff, and our parents provided the support to ensure dancers were where they should be, when they should be, wearing what they should be. We had wobbles - of course we did. But they were dealt with lovingly, professionaly and swiftly. No problem remained a problem.
The following pics give some insight to how happy and relaxed our dancers were throughout the day.
Kadie, Thea and Ayda enjoying watching from the wings.
Katy and Hattie enjoy some down time.
Ruby, Kacy and Rhianna share a joke off stage.
Benjamin loving his opportunity to perform on the big stage. He told his mum "it was just the best feeling ever being on stage"
Teaching Team
We received many messages of thanks and congratulations after the show, but one stands out for me as it comes from a parent helper who witnessed first hand how supportive and encouraging our team are. Every hug, every word encouragement from our team helped our dancers experience this amazing performance opportunity to it's fullest.
It was wonderful to watch all the teachers with their dance pupils back stage at the Tivoli show. You made each and every pupil feel confident and important. It was a really busy day and when the teacher brains were whirling, I witnessed, encouraging words and hugs that instilled self-belief before a massive performance experience. It felt very much that KDance was one team. I would also like to say thank you for being inclusive and allowing my ASN daughter express her creativity through dance. She really felt the same as the other dancers. Being truely inclusive is often overlooked and so rarely done. I really appreciate KDance for being truely inclusive. Katy Sutton - Isobel's mum
Time to rehearse with a calm and supportive teaching team helped prepare our dancers for their big performance.
Helen our ballet teacher guides her dancers through their finale.
Eirinn our commercial teacher guides positioning from the dress circle.
Professional Photography
As part of the dance show package we provided two professional photogrpahers to capture the day. These pics are readily available for all parents at no extra charge. To access the link to our photograph vault please just get in touch. After 2 years of online recording I chose not to invite a videographer. The show was called OFFLINE and I wanted it to be just like that. I did however want our dancers and parents to have keepsakes of the day.
Here are some images we absolutley adore:
Summer and Amy in their contemporary duet "Birds"
Our Gd1 Ballet dancers as part of the Nutcracker.
Freya and Cara travel across the stage.
Our stunning advanced Commericial group - Morgan, Summer, Abbie,Sophie and Rhianna
Cheeky pose at the end of our tap dance - well done Natasha.
Our Junior Commercial group look amazing in this moody pic.
Amy "waiting in the wings"
Reagan cheerful in her cheer dance.
Celebrating Success
Amidst all of this we made sure we had time to celebrate our dancers acheivements over the year. This was a lovely moment kept private between us and the dancers during the rehearsal. Prizes were given for hard work, best performance, biggest heart and culminated in the much coveted KDancer of the year award. Well done to all the winners and also to those who supported them and cheered them on. Our family feel was more than apparent during this unofficial ceremony.
To see all our pics just ask for the password and link to our photo vault.
Content
And finally we must give a nod to the fabulous content created for our show. Each dance stood out with its own personality, style aesthetic and vibe. Parents were entertained whether their child was on stage or not.
What a show that was, hands down the best KDance show ever!
Carol Cruickshank - Amy and Kacy's mum
What an amazing day! Absolutely Smashed it! Was a priveledge to be part of the team. To see kids as young as 5 on stage and such a mix of kids with different abilities come together as one team was so emotional and powerful to watch.
Karen Stephen - Megan's mum
I'm going to be honest, I was dreading the show as another dance show with all the dances being the same. WOW, just WOW! What a show it was! Every dance was different. There was such a great variety in pace, theme, style, it was genuinely enjoyable to watch. My family enjoyed it so much we discussed all the dances most the way home(definitely until past Ellon ).
Katy Sutton - Isobel's mum
We appreciate these reviews and totally agree - our show was varied and fabulous! Each school had its own theme or story.......
Commercial took us through the 22 years of KDance with pop music spanning that time frame
Contemporary gave us the courage to believe in ourselves.
Cheer was just SO MUCH FUN
Ballet & Tap told the story of the Nut Cracker
Elite told the story of Sleeping Beauty
Mixed Style took us through 22 years of Disney Movies.
Acro took us to the circus.
The creativity of the themes, costumes and choreography coupled with a well organised structure meant we created marvelous performing opportunity for our dancers that the parents truly enjoyed.
Facebook Lives & Celebrations
This isn't something we have done a lot of in the past. Finding the balance of keeping show stuff a secret whilst sharing the process is a tricky one. Bur our dancers love performing for a Facebook live and the thought that their mum is watching from home 🖤
Here is one live we did on the run up to our Tivoli show.
Something we do on a REGULAR basis is celebrate our dancer's success on social media. When a dancer gets a skill for the first time we tell the world about it. (With their permission of of course) Our dancers love these celebration videos, they help motivate them as well as provide a performing opportunity that makes them feel special.
Here is one example with Stacy falling down to bridge for the first time.
Exams
Exams are a wonderful performing opportunity that we provided for the first time this year. Though the audience is smaller than when we do a show case, dancers go though the same process of learning, practice, overcoming nerves and execution of pre rehearsed elements. They also enjoy a huge sense of acheivement, pride and shared experience with their fellow dancers. This year saw our first in-studio class ballet tests, contemporary dance exams with iD Company and acro exams with Acrobatic Arts. All students did really well and enjoyed celebratory parties afterwards.
Performing in the community
This year we supported 2 local events with another one in the the pipeline. We performed at the fundraiser for the local skate park and also at the Blue Light Festival which is organised by our local emergency services. We love doing these events, they provide excellent performing opportunities as well as allowing our dancers the chance to take pride in and support their community.
Preschool Showcase
Whilst we felt that travelling to Aberdeen to perform may be too much of a challenge for our preschoolers we couldn't just miss them out!
So we created a performing opportunity for our little ones that was designed not only to allow them to show off their skills but also to be inspired by our seniors.
In front of 200 people our little superstars performed elements from their class and dances they had learned. They were fabulous!
In between the groups our seniors performed sections from our Tivoli Show by way of showing parents where their little ones dance journey may potentially take them and of course to inspire our little ones to keep coming to class.
We knew this plan had worked when we heard little ones gasp throughout the senior's performance and then rush to copy their poses at the end.
It was a lovely afternoon with just enough of a perfromance element to give our young ones a "buzz" without adding too much pressure on them.
Parent Watch Days
When timetabeling and guide lines allowed, we invited parents in to the studio to watch their preschoolers. These sessions not only allow our parents a chance to see what their little ones are learning, but also provide a lovely performance opportunity for small dancers with minimal pressure. Small audiences and a familiar set up make these performing opportunities completely enjoyable for our dancers.
Here are some videos provided by one of our parents who enjoyed one of these events.
In conclusion......
....there is no conclusion. These events are inspired by our hard working and beautiful dancers. It is them who motivates our team to continue providing them with the best performing opportunities we can. And each one only inspires another. Who knows what our next chapter will bring.
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