BY THE DANCE SCHOOL OF SCOTLAND

Welcome to our February monthly newsletter for The Dance School of Scotland and its Residency.

NEW ARTICLES

This month we have published two new articles.

The Burrell Collection x The Dance School of Scotland

and

Audition Advice Part 2 by Darren Brownlie (Series Regular on BBC, over 15 years in Theatre, TV and Film)

We hope you enjoy reading them and we’ve plenty of exciting ones to come.

Discovering Degas at The Burrell Collection.

YOUNG PEOPLE

Febraury has been a month focused on the young people’s examinations and graduate auditions.

The Dance Course:

Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) Classical Ballet Examinations and the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancers (ISTD) Modern and Tap Examinations.

The Musical Theatre Course:

Associate Trinity College London Diploma (ATCL) and Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancers (ISTD) Modern Examinations.

Our graduates are excelling in their auditions and we very much look forward to announcing their destinations at the end of the academic year!

VISITORS

We welcomed performance combat specialist Tom Jordan this month, where he held workshops with our S3, S4, S5 and S6 Musical Theatre young people. The workshops focused on creating drama through stage combat, further developing and enhancing the skill sets of the young people for their aspiring careers in the performing arts.

Tom Jordan led workshops on drama through stage combat.

YDance (Scottish Youth Dance) is an award-winning national dance organisation in Scotland and they joined us at our studios to deliver workshops that explored movement for our S3, S4, S5 and S6 Dance Course young people. Movement workshops like this are vital for the young people, as they encourage the dancers to explore movement in different ways, as well as teaching the body to understand different forms of choreographed material and style. This builds on their vocational training, helping them to become versatile artists.

YDance led workshops on Creative Movement.

RESIDENCE

This month our residency team have provided a range of activities for our young people to compliment a busy period of time with their exam preparation.

This month we had:

Leavers Cooking Group

Big Life Journal – Discussing Habits

McDonalds Trip

Silverburn Shopping Trip

Baking

Snug Room Redesign continued

As part of the ‘Big life Journal – Discussing Habits’, Blaire (S1) has kindly shared her habits journey with us.

“In my Big Life Journal group we discussed ‘SMART GOALS’ (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time bound). I made my goal to try and stop biting my nails and I was aiming to do this by the end of February. Iona and Harrison checked in on me every week to make sure I was supported in sticking to my goal.

I would normally bite my nails if I am feeling nervous or stressed. I needed to find a distraction and I felt that twiddling my thumbs would stop me from biting my nails. I was supported by the rest of the group, and, within 2 weeks my nails had started to grow back and the distraction method worked!

My Granny is taking me to get a manicure in the holidays.

It is now the end of March and I still haven’t bitten my nails.”

S1's supporting Blaire. — S1’s supporting Blaire.

That is it for February, it was a busy month where the young people have been working hard to achieve their ambitions and dreams!

We hope you enjoyed reading and we wish you all the very best.