Performing with a Professional: Dance Scholars’ Workshop

The Dance Scholars were treated to a special workshop with professional freelance dancer, Tara Choudrie, on Monday 19th June, recognising their commitment to dance over the past academic year.

Tara explained, “We started off by doing a warm-up and then we did a contemporary dance class so they did a lots of mini-exercises which were designed to improve their physical skills, their strength, their stamina, their technical skills – all building up their skills that they get taught anyway but moving it to the next level. We’ve done some travelling sequences across the floor, think about using space, exchanging weight, working as a company and developing teamworking skills which you need if you perform in a large group. I’m also going to do some creative stuff with them which links to their GCSE and A Level studies. Next they are going to learn a full dance and think about their own choreographic things to develop the sequence and to put their own stamp on it.”

Tara continued, recognising the value of an external teacher to any dance group, saying, “They are important because they challenge them. You can also get used to learning from one dance teachers. It’s good to have a different approach, different learning strategies, especially if you want to go on audition, because you are going to have lots of different teachers auditioning you for dance schools. It’s good for them to learn some different movement material so they get to learn some different movement language or movement style.”

Tara trained at Northern School of Contemporary Dance and has experiencing teaching and lecturing from primary school to university students, teaching and choreographing in the styles of contemporary, ballet and jazz. She runs her own company, Choudrie Dance, and also works with a variety of groups via Dance Woking.

The Dance Scholars are usually selected during the Admissions process but also have the opportunity to apply once in School for the year that they move into Year 9 and Lower Sixth. Once through the rigorous audition process, the scholars have access to co-curricular activities, trips and workshops dedicated to their advanced level of capability.