What a term we have had here at Danscentre! There have been so many exciting events including our Senior Review Show, exams, awards, workshops and many more fantastic news to share! See all what has been going on this term below:
Senior Review 2023
We held our Senior Review Show this year at the Lemon Tree in Aberdeen from Thursday 22 to Saturday 24 June, and what a show it was! These performances are an opportunity for our Senior students to demonstrate class work and sequences in a studio theatre setting allowing the audience to see a glimpse of the hard work and development that has taken place in the last year. Syllabus work was displayed from the RAD Higher Graded Ballet (Grades 6,7 and 8), Vocational Ballet (Intermediate Foundation – Advanced 2) as well as some creative work from our contemporary classes, senior tap classes, boys hip hop (P4-P7) and commercial classes. All of our students, staff and helpers had a brilliant time and we hope all of our audience members thoroughly enjoyed the show. Please look through the slideshow of our students in action on stage above.
Royal Ballet School: ATAP Exams
Huge congratulations to our students who sat ATAP Level 1, 2 and 3 exams over the course of this term! What a fantastic achievement for you all. The hard work, extra time and effort you put in certainly showed through your work on the exam day.
Danscentre is one of only two dance schools in Scotland registered to offer The Royal Ballet School’s Affiliate Training and Assessment Programme (ATAP). ATAP extends The Royal Ballet School’s System of Training to the students of affiliated dance teachers. ATAP students study ballet technique, but also learn to create and appreciate Ballet, with opportunities to choreograph and review dance works. This ensures a more holistic approach to the learning of dance, with students having access to The Royal Ballet’s ethos and expertise. As with other assessments within Danscentre, students are entered for the relevant ATAP Level when they have reached the required standard of learning.
RAD Ballet and ISTD Modern Exams
What an exam session we had a the end of this term! We have had both RAD Ballet and ISTD Exam sessions in June and were extremely proud of all involved. RAD graded exams this time around varied from Grade 1 to Grade 6, as well as having some of our Vocational students sit their Intermediate Foundation and Advanced 1 exams.
Alongside the RAD exams, we had a 4 day session of ISTD exams on the last week of term. These examinations included Grade 2, Grade 3, Advanced 1 and Advanced 2. We had an incredible number -14 students - sit the Advanced 2 exam, which is the most Danscentre have ever put forward in one exam session for this level. This is an exam created for students in 3rd of professional training, and we had students aged from only 16 years old and above take this exam. What an incredible achievement.
DC Modern and Ballet Awards
Amongst ATAP, RAD and ISTD exams, we also held our very on DC Award session for our younger students! We held Primary 1 Ballet Awards and Modern Awards for a range of classes including Junior Modern, Grade 2 and Grade 3. These DC Awards are designed to give children the opportunity to experience an exam like atmosphere, as it helps prepare them for their future in dance if they do decide to take the exam route. It was fantastic to see the students in action and recognise their achievements and progression from their period of training. Well Done!
Preschool Demonstrations
What an exciting day we had on Saturday 24 June for our Preschool students who are going into P1 after summer. They had their Preschool Demonstration at The Lemon Tree where parents, family and friends were able to watch them take a class with their teachers. These young students showed confidence and creativity and were delighted to receive their medal and certificates.
Higher and National 5 Dance
Check out our Higher Dance and National 5 students all smiles before their written exam back in May! A big well done to them all for completing the course. the group have all shown so much development in their knowledge of dance, choreography and team work over this year and we are very proud. Wishing them all the best for when those final results arrive in August!
Gala Performances
We were delighted to have been asked to perform at both the Kingswells and Milltimber Galas this year! We would like to thank our students who took the time to come along to these gala days to perform. They all looked so smart and put on a brilliant display for those watching. Both gala days were so enjoyable to be a part of, and well prepared by the organisers. Thank you for having us- we had a blast.
Inspiration Week
Back in May, we held our final DC Feature Week of the year with an Inspiration Week. Students were encouraged to create posters of dancers/choreographers who inspire them to dance and what a fabulous array of posters we received. From Darcey Bussell to Michael Jackson, and Anna Pavlova to Meesha Garbett! All of the staff here at DC had so much fun with this topic during the week and hope the students did too.
U.Dance 2023
We are delighted to announce that Danscentre's piece Fix You has been selected to perform at the U.Dance National Festival 2023!
Following their performance at Y.Dance Festival in Inverness back in February, we have been selected to represent Scotland at U.Dance National Festival which will be held in Newcastle from 21-23 July. The event will hold a weekend packed with performances, workshops, dance careers sessions and lots more. We are delighted and excited to have been chosen to be involved in this UK dance flagship event.
Uniform Update
Uniform will remain the same from Preschool to Grade 3 for the coming academic year. More information will follow for uniform for students starting from Grade 4 and above, as well as those working at vocational level. For these students, please do hold off buying anything new until we send out a final uniform listing in the near future.
DC Alumni News
Harris Beattie
Danscentre would like to congratulate DC Alumni Harris Beattie on his recent promotion to coryphée with Northern Ballet! We are all so proud of his achievements since joining Northern Ballet and this promotion is such a well deserved recognition of his talent and work ethic - we are so excited to see what lies ahead for Harris in the future.
Alfie McPherson
A huge shout out to Alfie McPherson who performed in ‘Bernstein Dances’ in Hamburg back in May. Alfie was also very lucky to have had the opportunity to perform a solo section of’ Liliom’ within ‘Debut Ballet Workshop’. Such an inspirational company for Alfie to be a part of and we are very excited to see what the future holds for him as he continues to dance with Hamburg Ballet going into the new season since recently completing his Apprentice year. Congratulations Alfie!
Cameron Flynn
A big thank you to Cameron Flynn who took a high energy commercial dance workshop this term at DC. What a fantastic experience for all involved! Cameron is a professional dancer with Mathew Bourne’s New Adventures and will be returning to perform in his hometown this October on the tour of Romeo and Juliet at HMT with the company. Cameron is cofounder of FLYT Productions, a digital dance company sharing stories across online platforms. Huge thanks Cameron for giving our students such an inspirational class.
Heather Smith and Kim Francey: Eurovision
DC Alumni Heather Smith and Kim Francey both performed in the televised opening show to kick off the exciting event of Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool. Heather Smith, who is currently in her final year of training at LIPA, performed with Rita Ora for the opening show, as well as dancing in the semi-final and finals. Kim Francey performed with dance company Motionhouse in the opening show and in addition Kim has been a part of many works and projects since graduating from Institute of the Arts Barcelona back in 2021. Huge congratulations to you both!
Summer Photo Challenge 2023
The time has come again for the DC Summer Photo Challenge! Can you recreate one of these fabulous positions above during your summer break? Get creative, have fun and be inspired by any of these shapes. Let’s see what you can do! Send your pictures in by email or on messenger via Facebook.
We are now on our Summer Holiday break starting from Monday 3 July to Wednesday 23 August inclusive. Classes will return as of Thursday 24 August. We hope you all have an amazing holiday break and we can't wait to welcome you back through the doors of DC once we return!
TERM 1 DATES
TERM STARTS
Thursday 24 August 2023
MID TERM HOLIDAY
Friday 22 September to Monday 25 September 2023 inc.
TERM ENDS
Saturday 14 October 2023
OCTOBER HOLIDAY
Monday 16th to Saturday 28th October 2023
