We are very excited that after nearly a year of work, the young people working on Swanning Around will perform at the Royal Albert Hall on 14th June. The UK students will be joined by ten of their partner students from China to dance together on one of the world’s most famous stages!
We will be doing a series of live online reports over the students’ rehearsal weekend on the 12th and 13th of June, so check back!
In the meantime, we asked teacher Barbara Dutrieu of Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith what she and her students thought the technology aspect of Swanning Around has added to the project. Barbara and some of her students have written a short report below.
Barbara Dutrieu: “I was excited to be involved in the Swanning Around project but approached the role of internet administrator with some trepidation, as I am a languages teacher and have little IT knowledge or expertise. However our training day was very informative and we were all reassured to learn that advice from the WebPlay experts would be " a click away”.
The site itself has been very straightforward to use and the accompanying literature very clear. The three stages have involved differing tasks for the students and, as you can see from the report below from Pascale and Tasha, very rewarding ones indeed.
The students have been challenged to work imaginatively building scrapbook pages and have also learnt much about the ballet world, through information sites on English National Ballet and Royal Albert Hall, as well as contacting directly principal dancers.
The internet dimension has made an important, exciting and very personal contribution to this project.
Tasha and Pascale, students at Latymer: It has been fun putting up photos and stories, and especially getting to learn about China. China are able to put up photos and films of their dances, which has been very interesting! We have learnt a lot about their take on dancing and the similarities and differences, which we didn’t know before. They have put up many photos of their last show, which had a lot of dragons, fan, and umbrellas in it! And they uploaded pictures of them in their class; all doing the splits! Seeing how they dance the same one as us has given us a boost to work harder, and given some inspiration! They have put up photos of everyone in their schools, so we know who our pen pals are!
On the Swanning Around Homepage, there is a lot of key information about the ENB and Swan Lake. There are pictures of the ballet performing Swan Lake backstage, which gives us an insight to what it will be like for us. They also have profiles of the Director, and important people from the ENB, it tells you where they came from, when they started ballet, what their favourite show was, and what was their worst. We loved seeing what their favourite show was, because its good to see a preference from inside the company! We also liked seeing where and when they trained, because that is also a good tip to where is good to go train, and whether really good dances started at a late age.
We found the Ballet Buddies really inspiring, as we are talking to some of the best dancers in the world, and it is so wonderful to have that opportunity. It was wonderful getting a reply from your Ballet Buddy, because the website enables you to find out as much as you want. We have found out a lot about choreographing, and it has really made us want to go into it!
The website also has information about the RAH. And it is written by other students, which is great to see their take on it compared to ours, and to know that other people our age are going through the same process as us.
We find the website very helpful, and it has taught us a lot about ballet! We don’t think anyone else will have a greater opportunity as this; the proper look into foreign companies and the ENB!
And some other comments from. . .
Isabelle: I think that being able to talk to people in China who are doing almost exactly the same project as us is a really good idea. It is interesting to be able to talk to people from another country and to see their videos of the dance. Being able to see pictures, watch video clips and write and read articles to do with the project has been really fun and interesting.
Ciara: A great part of the project is being able to ask the choreographers questions about the dance. I also enjoyed being able to research our “Ballet Buddy”.I have also learnt a lot about our paired school in China, with this I have learnt background information on China.
Natasia:
I think that the internet experience has been really fun! I love looking at the pictures of the schools in CHina, and watching their rehearsals is interesting. I love seeing how they progress like us and how they do very similar dances to us but with clear differences. I also like looking at what the other British schools are up to .
I was so pleased when we got to ask questions to all the choreographers and especially Elena, our ballet buddy. It was so exciting hearing about them and their favourite ballets. Thanks
by rss