Laois Youth Dance Ensemble

Since September 2013, Laois Youth Dance Ensemble has facilitated young people to create and produce contemporary dance works to a high standard of performance, through weekly workshops, annual showcases and attendance at renowned youth dance festivals in Ireland such as Dublin Youth Dance Festival and NoiseMoves Dance Festival.

If you’re passionate about dancing and want to be part of this exciting dance group come along to

FREE auditions on the first day! 

Info and registration: LYDE artistic director Erica Borges 087-132 8852. 

* The audition will consist of a workshop, followed by a short interview.

  

Meeting Schedule:

@ Dunamaise Arts Centre on Saturdays from 20 September 2014 to June 2015:

2-3pm Juniors (Ages 9-12); 3-5pm Seniors (Ages 13-19).

Members Annual Fee: ONLY €100 for Juniors; €150 for Seniors (Sept 2014-June 2015)

For those already attending dance classes in Portlaoise or around the Co. Laois, it can be a boost into the dance skills besides making your local dance school/teacher proud. This exciting new dance ensemble seeks young people who are passionate about dance, love to perform and have the commitment to make the most of this opportunity.

Like LYDE on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LaoisYouthDanceEnsemble?ref=hl

Looking ahead - LAOIS YOUTH DANCE ENSEMBLE

Laois Youth Dance Ensemble started in September 2013 from a dream and passion that I had from long time ago. To have the Dunamaise Arts Centre through its director Michelle de Forge, embracing this vision of offering dance to young people in Laois is more than a honour to me, is an encouragement to keep me on going.

With no funds to support us financially and much work to do, LYDE has giving me such pleasure and joy to work with. Not only because I have been blessed to have lovely and talented dancers but I also have belief that our future shall be much brighter and our creativity will break boundaries of the imagination generating what is fresh and unique to our audience.

I'm not only looking ahead, I am looking forward to what else is coming! After our first appearance at Laois Dance Platform on 7th Dec, 2013 I became more certain that LYDE will walk with lifted eyes  to see dreams to come.

If you're 12+ and would like to join us, come on 1st Feb, 3-5pm for an experience Workshop. LYDE is a contemporary dance group that strives for excellence and seeks for passionate and committed dancers who wants to take the most of this experience.

MORE INFO, Dunamaise Arts Centre 

Laois Arts Office Summer Programme 2013 - Dance Workshop

I'm delighted to share the video of the Dance Workshop at Dunamaise Arts Centre, Portlaoise as part of the Laois Arts Office Summer Programme 2013. The children worked really hard during that week (1  to 5th July) learning 2 dance pieces and creating a dance phrase with my guidance. Their age group was between 9 and 12yrs and their experience in dance was none or little.
At the end of the programme they put great effort by performing to friends and family. Those dance classes in Portlaoise surely challenged them about confidence, self-presentation, communication skills, stamina, teamwork and collaboration, the ability to cope with criticism and learn from it, time management and organizational skills, self-awareness, self-discipline, an open mind and the ability to move beyond boundaries and experience different ideas.I hope you enjoy watching as much as I did teaching them.

Teaching Dance in Schools

As a Dance Teacher I find great pleasure in teaching dance in schools. I've been teaching dance classes in Portlaoise since 2009 but I feel that teaching in schools challenges and inspires me both as a teacher and artist in a different perspective. In the journey that I had in the Timahoe National School, Co. Laois I was delighted to see the progression of each student that embarked with me in the wonderful journey of finding the relation between arts and dance. In Timahoe N.S. they have a sculpture about the Salmon of Knowledge which is the result of the residency of the artist Stefanie Bruning in 2008 and we used this piece of Art as a theme for our dance project.

To start with, I choreographed a contemporary dance phrase and taught the students. It was clear that it was a totally new experience for them all. The movements were unusual and to relate it with a piece of art seemed innovative and a bit far from what they expected of a dance class could be. After they had learned the phrase they started to move accordingly to the story, being as imaginative as they could, having also the support of not to be afraid of being creative. After both sides (myself and students) had put our input into the project, we started to mix and match what we created and also to experiment what we had using different qualities of movements.
We could had worked together for months and years experimenting and recreating our movements, but my residency in Timahoe was for only 10 weeks. The result in my view is amazing for a bunch of children who had none or very little contact with dance. They developed the theme in a very short period as growing up people, showing also that to be creative is to be innovative.

I hope you enjoy the video of my journey which I call 'Still Dance'. And I hope to continually facilitate self expression through dance not only to fulfill my desires but to have other people inspired by the dance that can come from within.

Still Dance – A Dance in Education Project

I am honoured to be funded by the Laois Arts Office to teach dance in the schools of the County Laois. In my first project (Sports Dance) taught at Portlaoise College, I worked with the relation between Dance and Sports, emphasising the physicality needed in both areas to achieve their goals. Working now at Timahoe National School with the project "Still Dance", I continue on supporting children to ‘read’ movement as emotional expression, exploring their creativity and their excellence in what they do. Both projects were born from a desire to search for other venues that may lead people to dance or to see dance with other perspective. I want them to enjoy dance from the simple to the most complex movement and to understand that when you move to the music, a dance happens.
‘Still Dance’ is a project focused on the relationship between dance and Arts (Sculpture). Or in other words, my proposal is to find in the stillness of a sculpture feelings and ideas that may lead us to create a dance. 

Creativity is part of me both as artist and tutor. Therefore, I find very important to lead my students to find their ‘own treasures’ and to refine it to the finest that they can. In that way I feel I am not only teaching the students new steps or a technique but to become responsible for their own dance and to accomplish goals that may add solid skills into their lives.
Still dance suggests research, meditation and concentration. It seems difficult to require all that from children in their 5th and 6th class, however, when they find in the theme an interesting history behind, they become so involved that they may go even deeper than expected, showing great results at end. 

At the Timahoe N.S, our theme is related to ‘The Salmon of Knowledge’ sculpture made by the students and placed in the main entrance of the school. There are some unique movements coming out of it and a solid and consistent passion for dance that I pray will endure for the rest of their lives.

Dunamaise 2012 - DANCE SUMMER CAMP

This is the final presentation of the Dunamaise Dance Summer Camp. It happened in the week of 9 to 13 of July/2012.

These dance classes in Portlaoise were funded by Laois Arts Office and as a tutor explored the basic elements of dance, space, energy & rhythm while nurturing kids expressive capacity using creative movement & contemporary dance.

Following your Steps I Created my Pattern

This is about the dance a performance at 'Dance Symposium 2011' on 10th of December 2011 - Dunamaise Arts Centre, Co. Laois.  The dancers were being trained in contemporary dance only 3 months before the actual performance and their age were 11 to 14 years old.

The Dance Symposium aimed to connect  communities by  cultivating a network of dance artists/bodies working and  funding work made in Laois and across the Midlands, to create  opportunities  for  community  practitioners  and  participants  to  engage  and  exchange with professional dance bodies and to build  a  cohesive  program  of  dance  training  and  audience  participation  in  Laois  that  is  inclusive, sustainable and consistent.
The program was divided into three sections. The first section was with performances, the second section was given to Philippa Donnellan (CoisCeim Dance Theatre - Broadreach), Nick Bryson (Legitimate Bodies Dance Company), Maria Kerin and Anica Louw (Shawbrook Dance School) to make presentations on live/recorded performance and a lecture. The third section consisted of discussion and development meetings.

Dance in Education

This video is about a 'Dance in Education' project called 'Sports Dance' that I thaught at Portlaoise College, Co. Laois during autumm 2011. It was funded by Laois Arts Office. I hope you enjoy it:

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