Summer Course 2021

Rambert School has been busy this past fortnight hosting students for our Summer Course 2021.  The students were treated to a taste of Rambert School training with five classes a day ranging from ballet technique, repertoire, conditioning, contemporary technique, and creative classes.

Rambert School faculty, alumni and associated artists offered a variety of different approaches, with each dancer working on breadth of movement and finding innovative ways to move whilst exploring their individual artistic voice. Repertoire classes showed a different experience for each group. From Balanchine-inspired choreography, variations from Raymonda and one groups own interpretation of William Forsythe’s In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated, all accompanied by our Head of Music Barry Ganberg.

Contemporary technique and creative classes explored a mixture of release-based movement, flying low and Cunningham techniques. Through improvisation and creative sessions dancers explored generating original and innovative movement and found new ways to move their body.

Our full-time students supported the course, welcoming the dancers each day and helping them to navigate the week and find their way around the School. Meeting the student assistants gave the participants first-hand accounts of the variety of dance experiences they had all had before training at the School and learn about the different interests they were pursuing during their training.

Our team of musicians accompanied classes, fuelling the energy in each studio, and giving both tutors and dancers a great deal of inspiration to work from.

The weeks culminated in informal sharings between each group of both ballet and contemporary work over Zoom, giving us all an opportunity to celebrate the joy of coming together and dancing again. We feel grateful to have been able to fill our studios full of new students, music, and dance again whilst adhering to necessary COVID-19 safety measures.

Thank you to all the participants for making the last two weeks so special. It was sad to say goodbye to such wonderful, inspiring, (and quite tired by the end!), dancers. We hope to meet you all in the future again.

 

We’ve asked some of our Summer Course students what they thought of the course:

 

I’m from Greece so, that’s a long way to travel for the course. I had to quarantine 10 days before starting. So yeah, I really wanted to come! It has been totally worth it though I am having a lot of fun.

 

I really enjoyed the conditioning sessions because, I haven’t really looked into that kind of thing in that much detail so it’s great to know how to progress in dance.

 

I really liked the contemporary because, I don’t do a lot of contemporary where I’m from so it’s been really fun to do something new. I have also loved the variety of teachers we’ve had they’ve all brought their own vibe.

 

This course has made me realise what I actually want to do with my career in dance. It’s really helped me to know what to work on next and how to improve.

 

I have loved the dismantling of ballet ideas that Rambert School has given me this week. I’ve learnt that you don’t need to look a certain way to dance ballet. It’s totally different to what I’ve learnt before and I now feel a whole world of dance is open to me.

 

—

If you missed out on this year’s Summer Course, applications to our Autumn Intensive will open very soon. Join us for a three day intensive course on Monday 25th – Wednesday 27th October 2021 for a programme designed to deepen technical understanding and support creative expression. This course is perfect for those preparing for vocational auditions. Applications will open soon via our website.

 

A big thank you to our teachers, student assistants and musicians who worked so hard to bring the summer course to life!

Teachers:

Alex Whittaker

Ayumi Hikasa

Bryony Harrison

Charlotte Hannah

Désirée Ballantyne

Effie McGuire-Ward

Eleesha Drennan

Faith Prendergast

Georges Hann

Grace Jabbari

Hannah Kidd

Kio Tomiyama

Laura Caldow

Natalie Dodd

Raymond Chai

Sharia Johnson

Megan Cameron

Rachael Hunt

Darcy Wallace

Beatriz Calzado

Students Assistants:

Anna Smith

Bianca Mikahil

Chih-Yuan Yang

Greta Zappettini

Hannah Kremer

Harry Theadora-Foster

Sy Naet Nin

TJ Firmin

Musicians:

Barry Ganberg

Cyrus Gabrysch

Oliver Davies

Rob Millett

Stuart Marsden

Tom Kirkpatrick

Henry Green

Guy Attew