What a great contribution to yet another outstanding Rye Arts Festival! I am speaking of the two hours plus of delightful and impressive performance provided by Rye Dance Centre students at the Community Centre on Sunday afternoon, September 24.
Dances with numerous participants (of all ages) were made possible and good viewing assured even for the youngest visitors by arranging the audience around the four edges of the hall. And what a varied programme it was. Such a range of style and mood, choreography and costume: rhythm and grace, comedy and callisthenics, inventiveness and charm, impishness and sophistication. In addition to demonstrations of achievement from pre-primary through advanced examination levels, the programme featured jazz, ballet , blues, lyrical dancing and mesmerising tap, some through familiar stories and characters. We saw church mice, clowns and trolls, pint-sized witches with hubble and bubble, Alice and the Cheshire Cat, jelly babies, dancers from Cuba and Panama, a touching Hymn to the Fallen and much more.
The dancers – some as young as four years old – infectiously radiated their delight and self-confidence in performing. It was no surprise to discover that they are learning at an Approved Centre for the ISTD (Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing) which prepares students of all ages (from six months with no upper limit) in dance and theatre through to teacher training level; that its founder (1982) and principal, Joanne Fletcher, is an examiner for that organisation, and that students from here go on to careers in dance and theatre.
Something else apparent from the afternoon was that there is an impressive support team – former students in particular — backing up the work of the Centre in varied ways – e.g. ideas, teaching, singing, managing. You can find out more about what the Centre can offer you, your offspring or grandchildren on its website. Recommended!
Photos courtesy Rye Dance Centre