DanceXchange, Birmingham, has got a dance-packed summer ahead, running a varied programme of dance activity for young people and students which begins in August. The dance hub will be carrying out a hive of activity for young dancers and aspiring professionals, beginning with two summer courses: Youth Dance Intensives for ages 11-14 and 15-21 years (10 August and 27-30 August), and Choreolab for ages 15-21 (19-24 August and 18-20 October).
The courses focus on contemporary technique, performance and choreographic development. For Youth Dance Intensives, the participants will work with tutors on developing and strengthening their contemporary technique practice, and the sessions will also include the creation of a short performance piece. Choreolab is designed to give young dancers the chance to work with practising dance artists in a professional studio setting, covering improvisation, choreographic skills, development of ideas and individual style as well as working towards devising their own dance piece. Choreolab also includes a lighting choreography workshop with a senior Birmingham Hippodrome technician.
The courses are fantastic ways to build on existing skills and hone particular areas of study, especially if dancers are thinking about the next steps in their dance lives, such as building up to undertake GCSE, A-Level or vocational degree qualifications, or aiming to pursue dance careers further through auditions.
In addition to the courses for young people, also available is the application for the Jerwood Choreographic Research Project, in which over £120,000 is available to fund research proposals from artists and creatives from any artform, who consider their work to be choreographic. This would be a fantastic initiative to get a first work off the ground, or build on an existing creative state. As a National Dance Network initiative, the Project is an innovative new investment model for open-ended research in choreographic practice across all artforms.