Scottish Ballet on Arran
Dancers, musicians and tutors from Scottish Ballet will be on Arran from Friday 2nd to Monday 5th November with a wide range of workshops called Find Your Feet. Sessions will be held in every village – and they are not just for the young and mobile! The whole idea is to include everyone – small children, elderly people and those who work at everything from child care to truck driving, in hotels, shops, offices, workshops or on a computer at home. Footballers and other sports people will benefit from increased power and flexibility. Find Your Feet is designed to help everyone gain strength, balance and ease of movement. It will iron the aches out of stiff shoulders or a sore back, and open up the sheer pleasure of feeling able to move freely and with purpose.
There is no charge for any of the workshops – they are all completely free, as Find your Feet is paid for by Creative Scotland’s First in a Lifetime fund. The workshops will be held in seven communities across Scotland: Arran, Islay, Mull, Greenock, Perth, Fort William and Dumfries and Galloway. They will cover a wide range of interest, some of them concentrating on creative dance, others looking at music, costume or design. They cater equally happily for people who have never dreamed of dancing and those who are already working in that world. Classes in ballet technique will be available for those who want to expand their abilities, but no experience is needed. Complete newcomers to the idea of dance will be warmly welcomed.
Each event will involve collaboration with schools, nurseries and local organisations. Nobody will be left out. There will be fun Armchair Ballet events for residents of Montrose House and Cooriedoon Nursing Home. For those yearning to watch good dancing as well as take a hand (or foot) in it, on the Friday third year students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s Modern Ballet course will give a free performance of a dance piece called First Encounter. This dynamic new work, created by the Conservatoire in association with Scottish Ballet, is a by exciting young choreographer Chris Marney, now making a big name for himself in the dance world.
Catherine Cassidy, Scottish Ballet’s Associate Director of Education, is delighted by the prospect of coming to Arrann and says she is excited by ‘the energy and feedback we’ve received before we’ve even arrived!’ When the workshops end, there are further possibilities. The project can offer 50 funded places for local dance teachers from across Scotland to spend two days at Scottish Ballet headquarters. There, they can participate in workshops, watch professional dancers working and benefit from additional training that they will be able to bring back to their communities.
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