 Swanning Around Swanning Around is one of the largest scale projects the Department of Learning has ever initiated. Teaming up with the Royal Albert Hall and online learning company WebPlay, the idea was to create a new dance production inspired by Derek Deane’s Swan Lake. Working with five schools in the UK and five schools in China this was to be no ordinary project – it evolved into a project with national and international reach with inter-cultural dialogue at its core and two performances – the first at the Royal Albert Hall on the 14 June and the second at Shanghai World Expo on the 8 September. Five UK schools were matched to five groups in China, each paired with a professional dance artist including in the UK Principal dancer Yat Sen-Chang. English National Ballet Soloist Jenna Lee created large sections of unison choreography, an opening, middle section and finale for all the dancers in the UK/China to learn whilst composer Sally Greaves created a score to complement the orchestral sections. For the UK version of Swanning Around Burnt Mill School in Essex, Holland Park School and Latymer Upper School in London, Salford City College in Manchester and St John Bosco Arts College in Liverpool each worked with an English National Ballet dance artist to develop a piece of original choreography inspired by the central characters in Swan Lake. Five groups in China are currently in the same rehearsal process in Hong Kong, Beijing, Jiangsu and Shanghai. Alongside this, Jenna’s unison sections of choreography progress the original narrative and seek to capture the essence of Swan Lake. On the 12 and 13 June 2010, 120 young dancers including ten from Swanning Around took place on Monday 14 June 2010 with two performances: an open dress rehearsal at 3pm (for schools) and an evening performance at 7pm - which was open to the public. “It was amazing!! And very inspiring…congratulations for delivering something that is so wonderful, life changing, creative and innovative.” Assis Carreiro - Artistic Director and Chief Executive DanceEast Read more about it on Londondance.com. The ambition for Swanning Around was to create one original, succinct production presented by one company of young dancers performing at the highest level. We hope the legacy of Swanning Around will live on in the young people who danced in the UK version and that it will ripple through to those dancers 5000 miles away in China as they prepare for the Shanghai Expo performance of Swanning Around. See the coverage in the Press in China below:  Hong Kong South China Morning Post Swanning Around in Business Times Singapore Shanghai Expo performance coming soon!  |
SpotlightKerry Birkett
Recently choreographed a piece inspired by The Secret Garden at the Wycombe Swan
