Irie! Dance Theatre has recently launched a new Foundation Degree in Dance and Diversity based in their studios at The Moonshot Centre in New Cross, London. The course, which is being offered in partnership with London Metropolitan University and City and Islington College, provides technical training in African, Caribbean, Contemporary and Ballet dance, as well as contextual studies. It is led by Beverley Glean from Irie! and Rosie Lehan from City and Islington College. As the first semester drew to an end in December 2008, I had the opportunity to hear the perspectives of three students: Anya Sobornova, Sheika Edwards and Alison Fury.

JB: Tell me a little bit about your background and what brought you to Irie! Dance Theatre’s Foundation Degree.

AF: My background is that I’m a doctor, but I’ve come to Irie! via various community dance courses and vocational training at Morley College. That vocational training had mixtures of Capoeira and Hip-hop dance mixed with Contemporary, so I knew that I liked fusion. I’ve also been associated with the Carl Campbell Dance Company in Peckham for a long time.

JB: So is this a career break for you, or a change of direction?

AF: No I’m actually still working as well - freelance, and I’m hoping that I can carry on doing the two together. I’m very interested in choreography, so I’m thinking that maybe I can use one to fund the other and start up a dance company, but I have no idea at this stage. At this stage, I’m not planning on giving up my other career completely, because I’ve invested too much in it.

SE: Well, I’m 23 and I’ve been in technical dance training for about 5 years. After I did my A levels I opted out of going to University to do Graphics and decided to do dance instead. I’m a bit of a late starter. I did dance in school but no other training apart from that. So I started off doing a foundation course at Kensington and Chelsea College, then went to Lewisham College. They’re known for their hard, full-on course because it’s for late beginners so it was a great place for me to go. I think it’s prepared me for any sort of course. Last year I wasn’t in any formal training but I did open classes. I was looking for a course and I heard about this course by word of mouth. I knew about the dance company, but I didn’t know that they offered a course. I knew they did a summer school but that was about it. So I came and auditioned and they were really open. The course is new and it was a very relaxed atmosphere. The process included an informal interview and I liked that they were asking me about myself and my background. I think this course is the right pace - not too intense but not too relaxed either. I think it’s right for me.

AS: I’ve done dance since I was very little but I haven’t had a formal qualification. I’ve kind of meandered and done bits and pieces but I’ve never completed anything. So that’s why I came to this course - to cement it and get a piece of paper and to get the formality and structure. It’s nice because it reins you in and you get the feedback and the support. Like Sheika, I’ve heard of the company before and also heard a bit about the courses they used to run, but one year they weren’t able to run it and the next year they had no places left. It was actually just by chance this time around that I rang up in early September and they still had a place and took me. It was good because I have really wanted to do this course for a long time. I was interested in the course mainly because of the African and Caribbean side of it, because there’s no other institution that’s offering it at this level of intensity. You can go and do open classes and all the rest of it but this course helps you to focus in and actually gives you certification at the end of it and really delves deep into it.

JB: Anja, you’ve started to answer my next question, which is why did you choose this course, rather then going somewhere else?

SE: Yeah, it is the diversity of the Western and Caribbean coming together. I hope to learn the tools and the skills to actually work with both. We have training in classical Ballet and Contemporary as well. But it’s to know how to use that diversity and to learn the similarities and the differences and how they evolved. That’s what I’d like to do from a choreographic perspective, so that I can go on to use what I have learned to create dance myself.

AF: Very similar thing. I was also very attracted to the African and Caribbean elements, but also to the possibility to get better at Contemporary technique and to fuse them. Other courses tend to be very narrow in their focus, either very Contemporary or just Ballet and I didn’t want to do either of those.

JB: What have been the highlights of the first semester of the course?

AS: They took us to see a few shows and I really liked that. The companies that we went to see were the Jasmin Vardimon Company and DV8. Those were probably the two best works I’d ever seen, especially DV8. It really opened up our eyes to using text and media and we came back and we all want to use it in our choreography. After seeing someone else use it, you realise that it can work and look great. For me as well I’d say I love having the live drumming in class because that gives you the atmosphere and you get the drum breaks to count you into the movement and he can change the tempo so if you’re not getting something you have that live interaction that you wouldn’t get if you were just using a CD. So you can break it down so you really get the rhythms.

AF: The Jasmin Vardimon Company came and gave us a workshop and their work was so physically daring that it was quite a revelation to see that it was actually possible to do some of the things that they were doing without hurting yourself but that you could actually have a go. The other thing for me is that our group is only 10 people, so you get a lot of individual attention.

SE: I was also going to talk about the workshops. We’ve done a few workshops and had people covering classes and it’s been good to get different takes on dance. For example, our main African dance teacher is from South Africa and we had a guest from West Africa. That helped us to see the difference of styles and understand more deeply what we were engaging with. We also had a jazz workshop and I think that being exposed to all these different styles is going to help us not to be limited.

AS: We also had someone come in and do salsa and we had a group called C12, who have worked with Irie! and have taken a course with Rosie and Beverley before so it was really good for us. The piece that they performed was really good and everyone loved it. So it was nice to see that they are past students and to kind of see yourself and have that aspiration and to think this course can take you there.

JB: So you have two years on the course. What are you looking forward to over the remaining year and a half?

AS: I can’t wait until the placement in our second year. Because we get a short work placement that we’ll organise ourselves in a company or dance agency. So we’re really going to get out there, but with the ongoing support of our tutors. And also, I really enjoy doing the theory side of things, so I’m looking forward to doing dance history next semester. Then we also have arts administration in our second year and a part of that course is us organising our own event, raising the money and running the event. So it gives us that hands-on experience with the finances and everything.

AF: I’m looking forward to the end of January when we’re going to show our duets and solos to friends. I’m looking forward to how that’s received. I’m looking forward to knowing a lot more about how to go about doing choreography and experimenting as much as we can. And also being a better dancer at the end of the course than I was at the beginning, which won’t be hard!

SE: Yeah, me as well. I want to see what I produce choreographically because it is such a big part of the course. I want to see how I develop in that area. Also - now that we’re learning Caribbean and African - because I hadn’t done it before… (I didn’t even know that there was Caribbean dance in itself - I didn’t separate the two, it almost was one to me.) …So to get that in my body so I’m actually dancing it and to know that I’m using the facility in my body to actually do it to the best of my ability- and it really becoming a part of my movement vocabulary.

AS: We’re also interacting with the other departments and later after New Year, we’re working with the photography students to take headshots and create a portfolio. I think that’s going to be interesting. Then later we’ll be collaborating with different departments for choreography, so some of it will be dance film, costumes, incorporating media. Then we’ve got links to other people, which is nice because it gives us that professional experience of working to deadlines and communicating with people. I think all round it’s going to be interesting and very useful.

JB: In the course, what styles have you worked with so far?

AS: We’ve done Ballet, Contemporary (Limon), South African, traditional Caribbean like Quadrilles, Kumina, Dinkie mini, and we had Mohammed Dordoh come in and teach us Ghanaian from different tribes in Ghana.

JB: Does each of you have a favourite �" if you had to pick one �" which one are you drawn to?

SE: I like the Dinkie mini, even though it’s hard. I like that it actually has meaning. I like the songs that go with it. You can’t help but be connected or find a connection somewhere. It just makes it easier. Mashing is my favourite thing to do!

AS: Chicken Scratch is legendary!

SE: Yeah! Caribbean’s been really good for me because that’s where my roots are from. So it’s getting in contact with that and really delving deep and seeing the value in Caribbean.

AS: I like everything and at the moment you’re working really hard on the technique in all your classes. I probably enjoy Caribbean the most with the live music and everything. Obviously there is technique and they want us to reach our maximum and perfect the technique but at the same time one thing that Jackie Guy always emphasises is not worrying about getting it perfect - " just really dancing: ‘Exude that energy and enjoy it because I can teach you how to do the technique but nobody can teach you how to dance it, how to express yourself like that’. So that’s why I really enjoy that class and especially today because we were choreographing our own bits, using the movement ourselves. In that class I always feel like I’m properly dancing. I’m not thinking too much. I just let go and I’m just dancing. It’s more enjoyable and I really love the energy of it.

AF: I think I like the African, but it does change from week to week as well.

JB: Each of you has said that you were attracted to this course because it has diversity of styles. Why would you say diversity is important to you in dance?

AS: I think part of it is because for example with some dance, like Ballet, it’s very set; there are very set rules and set body types and the way you should be in your conditioning and everything. But with Contemporary and African and Caribbean it allows more room for your individuality and for you to express yourself in your own way rather than ‘this is how you have to do it’. Generally because it’s more reflective of our environment. We grow up exposed to those cultures anyway. So we have an interest in Caribbean dance from listening to dancehall and going out. Naturally you’re exposed to it so you want to know more about it and develop that, because it’s part of your culture now living in London.

SE: That was the perfect answer really! I think that if you want to be an innovative dancer and choreographer, you need something fresh to challenge yourself. And also the more you take in is the more you’re going to have to use and pull on. The more you fill yourself up. To limit yourself seems ridiculous, even with styles of music. Rosie and Beverley encourage you to listen to everything. And it’s because the more you listen to, you can really make clear decisions on what you like or what you want to use or what route you want to take and that’s how you develop yourself in dance or any other area.

AS: Even though Ballet and African are quite different because one is grounded and it’s more about rhythms, for me, like you were saying about combining the styles. For me, I think African dance and Ballet are the foundation of all other dances - you get jazz, tap, in Latin dances you see the undulations, you see all those things. So if you know those two you’ve got the grounding to do pretty much anything because you know the basics. I think the two actually complement each other really well. In Ballet you’re really held up doing things on point and demi-point and then in African you’ll be in plié all the time. So even for your muscles I think it’s very good because one is stretching you and the other is contracting. It’s almost like injury prevention as well because you’ll be really pulled up and then in African you’ll be using your rib cage so at the same time it relaxes and stretches you so it creates the balance.

AF: I think it’s just richer having all the dance forms, and you don’t just get the dance, you also get the music. So you get ‘more for your money’.

JB: So what is your big dream? What are you driving towards?

SE: With Irie!’s connections with other companies, particularly abroad, it’s actually made me think more about studying abroad. I never really thought that before, I was really narrow-minded. I thought everything was here. There’s so much that I’m missing now learning African and Caribbean, I’m realising that I have actually been really narrow-minded. So I’d like to go abroad and do a few more years of studying. Then maybe I’ll have enough ideas and life experience to start choreographing.

AF: I’ve kind of said it. I want to dabble in choreography and I don’t know if I’ll be able to have my own company and do some experimenting there or whether I can look for opportunities out there in the big wide world. Maybe even with theatre, where you’ve got movement and dance in plays so you could choreograph for that type of thing. I don’t really know what’s out there, but I’d quite like to have a go at it.

AS: With me, it’s just kinda hard because there are so many different things that I’d like to do. My main interest that I want to develop is in dance film. That’s what I want to work in, and also choreography. And like Sheika said, because I’ve done some dancing abroad, I’d like to go to Edna Manley in Jamaica to study, or to go to Cuba and study with the company I was with before.

JB: You have all mentioned choreography, what kind of work would you like to make? Do you each have a vision?

SE: Dance Theatre because I’m interested in narrative and actually saying something. I think that there’s a lot to say. I’d like to have a professional company. It’s going to be called Convictions Dance Company (watch that name!) but I also want to do community work. I love to see amateur dancers coming in and working with professionals. I’m interested in everyday life experience because I think that’s what art should be about.

AS: Right now in choreography, we’re researching our themes and I really like that part. So I think my dream job would be as an artistic director so I’m doing the research and coming up with ideas. So I would love to be able to work with a choreographer who could translate that into movement. So maybe Sheika and I could work together. I bring the ideas and she actually puts it together.

SE: You’re hired!

AF: I need to find out what’s out there first. I wouldn’t restrict myself to pure dance. Just as an example there was an African Gentlemen of Verona at the Oval House recently and they had movement and dance in it, and I would quite like to land some sort of a job doing that, I think. Don’t know if I’ll be successful, but I’d like to have a go!