Encore 2013 - Live Arts Event

This weekend I attended Encore, a two day dance experience with workshops and competitions in all dance styles. I went with two of the troupes from my dance school SJ School of Dance, Equilibrium and Warning. We drove to the venue, Pontins in Burnham-on-Sea on Friday the 8th November, where we spent the night as well as attending the opening Fancy Dress Party in the main hall.

Then, on Saturday, we all woke up and prepared for the competition. We entered 8 dances across the three categories.These included:

• Equilibrium - Over 14's Street, Jazz, Modern and Cheer
• Warning - Under 14's Street, Jazz, Modern and Cheer
• SJ Junior Modern - Under 14's Contemporary and Ballet 
• SJ Senior Modern - Over 14's Contemporary and Ballet  
• SJ Ballet - Over 14's Contemporary and Ballet  
• Contemporary Company - Over 14's Contemporary and Ballet  
• SJ Musical Stars - Under 14's Musical Theatre and Tap
• SJ Tappers - Over 14's Musical Theatre and Tap

I was in the dances in bold.After all of the performances, we then took part in the duo competition, where one of the 6 pairs we entered got placed in 5th in the finals. We then got told that all of our dances apart from Contemporary and Ballet had got into the finals the next  day.

After the finals, we took part in workshops with the judges. Some of the judges that we learnt from and spoke to over the weekend included:

Lizzie Gough
Chuck
Turbo
Jeffrey Felicisimo
Lucas McFarlane 

Each of the judges took a workshop in their chosen style, including hip-hop,  contemporary, musical theatre and jazz. Unfortunately, due to an injury I could not take part in the workshops, but I watched a few of them in order to learn from the professionals involved.

Then there was an awards ceremony for the group dances. Here is where we placed:

•  Equilibrium - 5th Place
• Warning - 2nd Place
• SJ Junior Modern - 1st Place
• SJ Senior Modern - 7th Place
• SJ Musical Stars - 2nd Place
• SJ Tappers - 3rd place

Overall the weekend was an amazing experience that as a dance school we learnt a lot from. We learnt the basics as new styles such as Jazz and got inspirations for new creations within our dance school. I believe this competition has made a huge difference to my creativity and technique as a choreographer as it has given me new ideas for the dance movements themselves and the music I will use.