Sophie Brown and Ajah Cameron report on the full day workshop with professional dancers from Footnote Dance company.

NCEA Dance students were lucky enough to work Celia and Emma, two dancers from Footnote Dance, one of Aotearoa's leading professional dance companies.

During the full day workshop we learnt some warmups and small sections from the Footnote performance of ‘Mass Solitude’. 

We were then instructed to write down 10 things that make us feel lucky. These were things like our lucky numbers or finding a perfect car park. We created a movement for each of the 10 lucky things, then linked them together to create our own small solo dance phrase.

“It was a helpful exercise that we could take away and use in our own choreographic practices for our current Group Choreography task”

Lucca, NCEA Level 2.

After splitting off into our year groups, we combined our solo dances with the Footnote choreography to create our assessment piece, with the help of one of the footnote instructors. By learning and creating new choreography in this workshop, we expanded our dance vocabulary, giving us all new ways to create abstract and interesting choreography.

Although we were very tired by the end of the day, we had such a fun time and we are grateful for the opportunity to work with Celia and Emma from Footnote New Zealand Dance.

“They pushed me physically to the point where it gave me a whole new appreciation for the hard work professional dancers go through each day” Taylah, NCEA Level 2