Mass Dance Trip to Plymouth
Monday 6th April – Thursday 4th April 2015
By Emily Snow
After arriving in Plymouth on Monday evening, the project began first thing at 9:15am Tuesday
morning. We began with initial introductions and discussed the overall plan for the mass dance. We
broke the choreography down into five sections which gained names as we went along: ‘Heart beat
and waves’, ‘Pebble travelling’, ‘Rock’, ‘Storm’ and ‘Beach’. We saw the grid shaped plan that Jules
Laville, Dance Director at Plymouth Barbican, had made which really enable us to visualise the
structural layout within which the 288-300 dancers would be performing. Alongside myself and the
three other National Young Dance Ambassadors, we also worked with Kane, from The Northern
School of Contemporary Dance and Amber who was a part of Wheel Fever, a dance company for
people in wheelchairs. By having this mix in collaboration we were really able to make sure our
choreography was inclusive of all abilities and gender.
We began our creative sessions with a contemporary warm up which included exploring travelling
movement across the studio and exploring how far the body could physically move. It was then
decided that we would work choreographically backwards through the sections, which would mean
starting with the ‘beach’ section. Jules taught us the British Sign Language to the song ‘We do like to
be beside the Seaside’. We then worked in pairs to come up with movement phases based on the
sign language we had just learnt. Once we had devised the movement, we shared and taught it to
the other dancers. This method was continued throughout all the sections as we devised the piece.
Following on from this, the final day of the residency included making the tutorial video. Personally,
this was quite a challenging yet eye-opening experience as we all became aware of how hard we had
to work together to produce the video. If one mistake was made or something was out of place, the
phrase had to be reshot. This took our full concentration. It was enlightening to be a part of the
tutorial video and thrilling knowing that our choreography is a part of something as amazing as
U. Dance 2015.
In conclusion, the trip was a fantastic experience. As ambassadors we all took part in making crucial
decisions for the Mass Dance whilst being able to get a real feel for the festival in July. It was a
pleasure to work with a range of people and be able to be part of the experience. Next stop,
U. Dance 2015!