Rationale for Award Title

Rationale for award title

I would like my award title to be ‘BA Hons Professional Practice in Dance’

I would like to propose this award title because since the age of eleven, my life has been completely centred round dance. In 1999 I left home to become a student at Elmhurst School for Dance where I studied professionally for 8 years. During my time there, I trained not only in Classical Ballet but also in Jazz, Tap, Flamenco, Contemporary, Character and Irish dance. I was lucky to work with choreographers such as Michael Corder (Ballet), Sherrill Wexler (Flamenco) and Stephen Paling (Jazz). I also worked with companies such as Birmingham Royal Ballet and English National Ballet in various productions as a student. On graduating in my final year I received my level 6 National Diploma in Professional Dance before beginning my first job as a classical ballet dancer with Dortmund Ballet Theatre in Germany. I signed a 6 month contract with the company to perform in their production of ‘Swan Lake’ which required my skills in both classical and neo classical ballet. After my six months employment was complete I was then taken on by the Vanemuine Ballet Company in Estonia where I signed a year’s contract. During that first year I performed in Par Isberg’s production of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ in which I had the challenge of dancing my first classical solo since graduating. I also danced in Ruslan Stepanov’s ‘Kevade’, a contemporary production and Mare Tommingas’s ‘Queen’, a collaboration between dancers and renowned Estonian pop singers that called upon all my skills and versatility as a dancer. After a successful and enjoyable first year, I signed a second contract for a further two years. Now in my second year, I have continued to perform in all of the company’s classical and contemporary works and additionally in their Estonian production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Evita’.

With my career taking off I hope to continue as a performer for a while yet. I have therefore decided on my project topic of ‘How can dancers cope with nerves and stress’, in order to address an issue I and other dancers are constantly faced with. Having had a strict dance education and much performing experience, I have often felt the effects of nerves and stress and have witnessed others going through the same experience. I therefore think that developing my knowledge in this topic would be extremely worthwhile, not only for my future career but also for others in the same position.

Although my main area of expertise is in Classical Ballet and my project will involve and be largely based on classical ballet dancers, I believe that whatever information I find out from my research will be useful and beneficial to all types of dancers.

I feel, therefore, it is important for me to have the word ‘Dance’ as opposed to specifically ‘Classical Ballet’ in my award title as I have always been interested and appreciative of different genres. I hope in the future to continue to perform in the many different styles of dance.