UCLan dance students take talent into local community
Dance students from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) are sharing their talents with the community through a six-date tour of local schools and colleges.
The final year dance performance and teaching students have worked with professional dance artist Carl Harrison to create their latest contemporary dance touring work, MichaelMichaelMarthaMartha, which takes a quirky look at the spectrum of gender and associated stereotypes.
So far the students have performed to pupils at Longridge High School on the first date of their tour and are set to visit five other schools around Lancashire over the next few weeks. In addition, the dancers are also running educational workshops at each school to share their skills and knowledge with potential dance students of the future.
Rosie Mullin is one of the dancers involved. She said: “It’s fantastic to go into local schools to show what we do and how it can be achieved to hopefully really engage the pupils. It’s also been hugely beneficial to work with Carl Harrison because he is so professional and well-connected in the dance industry.”
"It’s fantastic to go into local schools to show what we do and how it can be achieved to hopefully really engage the pupils."
Dance Course Leader Lucy Nicholson commented: “The students have worked intensively with Carl, who is currently touring with Protein Dance Theatre, to create a hugely innovative and quirky piece of dance that they can now take into the community and perform to a variety of audiences. It’s also great for them to run workshops for the schoolchildren to gain additional practical experience in teaching as well as performing.”
The other schools the tour will visit are Hutton Grammar School, Tarleton Academy, Carrhill Secondary School, Darwen Aldridge Community Academy and All Hallows Catholic High School. At the end of the tour the students plan to give a final performance of MichaelMichaelMarthaMartha at the course’s showcase on the 1 and 2 June at the UCLan Media Factory.
Photos from the Longridge High School performance can be found on the UCLan Flickr gallery.
