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.

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.