Dance teachers from across Wales and England recently assembled at Caerleon Town Hall to attend the British Ballet Organization’s Dance Musical Theatre Grade 1 Syllabus.
Focusing on introducing, developing and finessing the skills required for higher education courses in Musical Theatre dance and musical performance, the syllabus was presented by actor, dancer and choreographer, Cris Penfold.
Cris took teachers through the early stages of the syllabus designed to introduce children to a wide range of Musical Theatre styles and characterization based on jazz dance technique and was pleased with the positive reception from the dance teachers in attendance. “Sometimes teachers get afraid with dancing or taking a class or have their own opinions they want to stick to, “ he said, “ but everyone was so open, positive and lovely, its been great.”
In the afternoon, Cris also took students from local schools through their paces in two workshops designed to demonstrate to the teachers how the syllabus works incorporating both musical theatre and jazz pieces.
The day was deemed a success with all participants enthusiastic about the outcome of the syllabus, which made its debut in Wales with this particular session. The syllabus is shortly to be implemented several South Wales’ dance schools for the forthcoming autumn term, including those of Sharon Higgins in Newport and Jackie Bovey’s in Caerleon allowing many dance teachers and students to benefit from the syllabus in the future.
