Friday Class

I've been doing the Friday class for ages - OK I know it's not a level I should be working at and it theoretically isn't challenging enough but there are loads of reasons for doing it.
Firstly after a bad week I really look forward to a high-energy class to burn off the frustrations and anger and the Friday class is always a bit jazzier.
Secondly getting back to basics helps iron out the bad habits and review things e.g. getting those simple plies really smooth and centered. You get the services of Dougie, one of the best percussionists around (Salsa Celtica). I suppose most of all though it allows me to enjoy dancing and 'performing' rather than concentrating on technique.
There are downsides of course - sometimes going over sequences slowly can be frustrating when you just want to get out there and do it. Especially at the beginning of term you get people there who seem to have wandered into the class randomly!! I still can't get to grips with this: why does someone pay upfront for a term of classes when they don't know what it involves? You even get girls turning up in tight jeans and long skirts! Luckily Dancebase allows class switching in week 1 if there are vacancies.

This week there were 2 people injured - one who has a chronic back problem and had to stop, the other a knee sprain doing jumps - luckily one for the icepacks and not a hospital job.

Monday Classes

No need for a warm-up as I had to powerwalk to class; my car being under intensive care at the garage. I’m still suffering a bit from the improv workshop on Sunday! 9 times out of 10 there’s no floor work in the Cunningham-based class but just my luck to have to pivot on a somewhat colourful and swollen knee. We have to suffer from our art but managed to cheat by taking it on the calf muscle. Not my day, I got picked on for having Swan Lake arms – good enough for Markova but I was supposed to do power not grace. Still the arabesques are improving and I just love triplets, I reckon my body rhythms work in threes (perhaps because I was born on the third day of the 3rd quarter?). Still a great class as always and as the numbers were down a little more room to move in Studio 2. It’s a very international class (Cuba to Singapore) though I think the girls at the back struggle with English a bit.

Dance in Edinburgh

Edinburgh’s dance scene features a strange dichotomy: 11 months of the year things go on at a steady pace then in August the floodgates open with the Edinburgh International Festival ( www.eif.co.uk ) and the Festival Fringe ( www.edfringe.com ). From a performance point of view there are several venues: the Festival Theatre (www.eft.co.uk) – new, comfortable and showing superb large contemporary dance productions (recently Matthew Bourne’s Edward Scissorhands and shortly Scottish Ballet’s Triple Bill of Balanchine's Episodes, Petronio's MiddleSexGorge and William Forsythe’s Suite from Artifact), The Playhouse ( www.thisistheatre.com/regional/edinburghplayhouse ) – hosting ballet (the ubiquitous Ellen Kent touring company!) and musicals, the Kings – grouped with the Festival, and the Traverse ( www.traverse.co.uk ) which is a more intimate venue for smaller contemporary productions. During the Festival almost anywhere becomes a potential venue but notably Dancebase ( www.dancebase.co.uk) transforms itself into a theatre with some of the best performances. Also notable during the festival is Aurora Nova at St Stephens (www.auroranova.org) which features international dance and physical theatre.
Educationally, Telford College ( www.ed-coll.ac.uk ) does courses in dance for qualifications at various levels, Queen Margaret University College ( www.qmced.ac.uk ) has dance elements in its Drama courses and in the private sector, Dance For All (www.nimbiz.com/4032002 ) runs student courses in dance. For a pure contemporary dance course then Dundee hosts the Scottish School of Contemporary Dance ( www.dundeecoll.ac.uk/sscd ).
The aforementioned Dancebase is the principal centre for classes from absolute beginners through to professional level, next port of call would be Dance for All. There are classes in various parts of the city in other forms of dance from Swing through to Tango.
There are several dance companies and artists in Scotland either based or regularly performing in the Edinburgh area e.g. X-Factor, Curve Foundation, David Hughes, Jenna Agate. For more information I’d suggest using the Scottish Arts Councils website and following the various dance options - www.scottisharts.org.uk .

I know Rachel Feinerman has placed a link to Tartan Leotard on her excellent New York dance blog www.downtowndancer.com so I’d welcome any questions/comments from the US.

Katie Duck

On Saturday I had the opportunity to take part in a pro-level workshop with Katie, part of Janis Claxton’s program of Improvisation, Composition and Movement Awareness. It was a great experience, not just from a dance point of view but also because she takes care to explain the reasoning behind what she teaches. It involved forgetting a lot of the things that we’ve struggled to learn – so turning without spotting and freeing the eye was a somewhat disorienting experience! It’s the second of these workshops I’ve attended this year. Last month Angus Balbirnie held a composition workshop. This was pretty energetic and challenging, working on trios both as a dancer and director. I always feel inferior at these sessions, partly because I’m my own worst critic and know my own limitations, and partly because I was aware of the considerable experience of most of the other participants. I think though I’ve reached a stage in my dancing where I need to come out of the ‘safe zone’ and challenge myself before it’s too late.

www.katieduck.com

Introduction

OK, so why tartan leotard? Well I needed something Scottish and something connected with dance so there we are! It's been really great contributing to other people's blogs so I'm going to contribute my little bit to cyberspace.