HfC Youth Dance Seniors Visit London Dance Studios

In February, the Hall for Cornwall Senior Youth Dance Company embarked on a trip to London to explore a whole world of opportunities. We sett off from Cornwall early on Saturday morning, the coach was buzzing with excitement and chatter, talking about what to expect and what we were looking forward to. Our director, Helen, talked us through the events of the day, and answered any questions - as always our chaperones, (Helen, Rob, Suzie and Nick), were fun, supportive and reliable, making the whole trip even more entertaining for us.

After a few stops for lunch and loos, we arrived in London, hurrying off the coach, straight to Rambert studio! We were introduced to a longtime member of Rambert dance company, Simone Stackhouse, who led an incredibly enriching class for the group, in which we learnt repertoire from Rambert’s hit show ‘Peaky Blinders: Return of Thomas Shelby’. The class was so fun and full of new challenges that the dancers jumped into head first. Simone was a wonderful and supportive teacher who we quickly warmed to along with her TA, Sunny. The group left the workshop full of adrenaline and excitement about what we had learnt, leading lots of conversation for many of us about future careers. After leaving Rambert, we were definitely worn out, but more importantly... we were hungry! It was time to search for some dinner. Luckily, Helen was ahead of the game, so we walked along Southbank where we filled up on tasty food and chatted away. Then it was time for a well deserved rest. We arrived at the youth hostel and settled into our rooms for the night.

We were up bright and early the next morning and headed downstairs for a group breakfast and to share anticipation for the day ahead. Our first stop was the brand new dance venue, Sadler’s Wells East. Built in the Olympic park, Sadler’s Wells East opened at the beginning of the month, so we were incredibly excited to be one of the first groups to tour the building and see inside the brand new theatre. Whilst we were there, we were met by the director of the National Youth Dance Company, who were occupying the building. We were lucky enough to meet the current company warming up during our building tour, who talked us through a typical day as a for them and what it’s like to be part of NYDC.

After that, we were lead back to one of the studios where we met to former NYDC members, who led a workshop for us. They led us through some technique exercises and then we were taken through both repertoire from a previous NYDC production, ‘The Wall’ and creative exercises to build a piece. This workshop was incredibly fun, full of new and familiar tools to move and create together as a company. Our teachers were so friendly and supportive and we certainly enjoyed the whole process of learning and creating together. After the workshop, we ate our lunch and headed off to Sadler’s Wells theatre in Angel to watch Pina Bausch’s ‘Vollmond’. This show was a very new experience for the majority of us, the inspiring movement of the dancers and the interesting utilisation of what's at our disposal, such as water and props, was very entertaining to watch. We left the theatre buzzing with inspiration and headed back to the youth hostel ready for a chilled out evening together, exhausted from a busy day. Dinner time included lots of different takeaways... and then afterwards the group gathered around the tables and chatted about what we had enjoyed so far and what we might want to do more of next year. Jut before we headed up to our room, we ended the evening with a impromptu show of our ‘Peaky Blinders’ rep.

Our last day in London began with another early start, another full breakfast before packing our lunches and heading to the London Contemporary Dance School, AKA, The Place. We began with a tour of the building and were given the opportunity to sit in and watch some classes. We then met Emma, a teacher at the school, who led a breakdancing workshop for us. The dancers really enjoyed this, as none of us had done anything like it before. Although the class was challenging, we took it in our stride and had a blast, learning lots of new and unusual movement. The last item on our agenda was a talk about life as a student at The Place and what opportunities come from studying there. The dancers asked lots of questions And many of us left feeling more confident about our studies as a dancer and informed us about what opportunities are out there to study dance. As the time to leave London was nearing, we headed outside to eat our lunch and enjoy taking in the city. We then took a walk to Covent Garden, where we explored the shops and street performances, decompressing from a busy few days.

Soon enough, it was time to hop back onto the coach and drive home. The coach was filled with laughter and sing-song as we talked about all the wonderful memories made over the last few days, and before we new it we back home in Cornwall and utterly exhausted! We all had such a wonderful time and want to give thanks to Helen, Sally, Rob, Suzie, Nick, Jess and the rest of the Hall for Cornwall Team who make things like this possible for us.

-Written by Sorcha, HFC Youth Dance Senior Company member
-Photos provided by HfC Youth Dance Members