A day working with Rachel Freeman

My third day of work experience at Blue Eyed Soul was working with Rachel Freeman. During the morning I helped her research some information which see needed -to hire a cherry picker for the company. We then both sorted through all the areial equiptment including harnesses, safety ropes etc. Rachel needed all the information given on the tags which you can imagin took a long time to gather.
Rachel Freeman had a dance workshop in the afternoon which,she is leading at a secondry school with 6 children/teenagers all around 15years of age for six weeks. It was really interesting for me to see the differences between Rachel Liggitt teaching primary school children the other day and seeing Rachel Freeman teaching the secondry school students. This has given me a real insite to this section of their type of work. I am hoping to attend one of there Like youth dance workshops myself in the near future as I find the company and their work very interesting and I would really like to keep in touch with the company until next March, it will also give me the opertunaty to see disabled and non-disabled dancers working together as I have not yet had the chance to do so.

Charlotte Evans Work Experience

Second day of work experience at Blue Eyed Soul

My second day at Blue Eyed Soul has been a very busy one. Me and Rachel went through all her emails- there are loads! I had a phone induction and got to answer the phone a couple of times throughout the day one of the phone calls being my form tutor which was very funy as I was not expecting him to call which unfortunatly sent me into a very inprofesional giggle fit- oh dear hopefully that wont happen again!
I also wrote my first blog earlier today about my first day yesterday therefore I am writing a blog about writing a blog (hope that isn't too confussing).
I also did lots more admin work today and did some amendment to the daterbase. Myself and Rachel had a go at photocopying after several failed but funny tries to get the photocopier to work doublesided even though Jenna had shown us how to work it yesterday luckily we did finally get it to work. Mr.Westcott my form tutor came into visit me although he is a maths teacher I think he really enjoys talking about the dance world and not just the admin side of things. Overall today has been another very interesting day and I have learnt even more about behind the scenes of Blue Eyed Soul.

Charlotte Evans - Work experience

My first day of work experience at Blue Eyed Soul

My name is Charlotte Evans i am 15 years of age and this is how my first day of work experience at Blue Eyed Soul Dance Company went. When I first arrived at Blue Eyed Soul I was introduced to the members of staff who work within the company by Rachel Liggitt as I had previously met with her before my fist day of work experience. All members of staff were very friendly and helpfull which gave me a boost of confidence with working along side then as to start with I was a bit nervous. Rachel Liggitt then gave me a tour around The Lantern where Blue Eyed Soul's office is based. I then started some admin work for the company as there is a lot of it. Rachel asked me if I wanted to sit in on a company meeting, I gained loads of usefull information about what goes into the company behind the scenes (lots of hard work and organisation). I then carried on with the admin work i had started. When i had finally finished Me and Rachel Liggitt went to a primary school where she led a small dance workshop for a few of the children there. All of the children were really sweet and creative I also enjoyed taking part in this workshop. It was a really good experience seeing how Rachel teaches and get the children involved with the dance.

Work Placement at Blue Eyed Soul

Slight change this time as it's not the usual Blogger here. My name's Aishling, I'm fifteen and over the past week I have been doing my work experience at Blue Eyed Soul.

I arrived at the Lantern on Monday morning feeling very excited but also slightly nervous and not knowing what to expect. I started off by making a complete fool of myself, trying to get through a door that I later learnt you needed a pass for! However a very nice woman, who I unfortunately never caught her name, showed me where to go.

Stood outside the office I quickly took in where I was and knocked on the door. I was welcomed in to a lovely environment. An office, admittedly smaller than I expected, with two smiling faces - Rachel Liggitt and Sarah Kennedy. On the drive up my Mum had said to me "Now remember, most places get the work experience person to make the tea so be prepared", but one of the first things said to me by Sarah was "Do you want a cuppa tea?". I felt privaledged!

My day started off with a brief introduction to the company and an explanation of how my week would run. I thought 'Well that sounds nice and simple'. That was before the huge task was put in to my hands...

I was to be in charge of their mail out to their Symposium in October. I looked at the pile of envolopes and thought 'Okay, maybe not so easy!' Little did I know this task would end up running throughout my week! I was also asked to input names onto the Company's extensive database, email parents about a dance club coming up and of course, the dreaded task for any work placement student... Answer the phone! At the end of the day we went out and put all the letters we had prepared so far in the post box. I went home feeling oddly satisfied.

I had been told that on Tuesday we were going to the Mac in Birmingham for what they called an "Ideas Tap". I really didn't know what to expect. The morning was spent preparing more letters for the mail out, and then at around 12:30 we set off for Birmingham. We arrived at the Mac which is a beautiful arts venue set in the middle of a park! I found and hearing from the disabled artists really interesting.

My next day of work was Friday, which is of course today! So far I've continued the mail out (this seems an endless task!) and done some work in the studio, preparing a lesson Rachel Liggitt will be delivering tomorrow to professional artists in Derby that I have very generously been offered to attend.

And now I'm doing this, wittering on about my week to you lovely people. So I'm going to go and do some work with Rachel for tomorrow. I must say this week has been fab! Thanks for reading.

Market Hall Comes Alive in Dance Performance

What a fantastic response we've had to the Contact group's performance at the Market Hall in Shrewsbury at the end of last month. Surprised stallholders and market hall customers were taken unawares by an inclusive dance performance that started with cake boards on the balcony and encompassed interactions with books, wool, packing crates and some unsuspecting shoppers.

Choreographer Miriam Keye said: “The performers, as always, were incredible and did a fabulous job! It reminded me of the absolute joy and power behind Community Dance performed at super high quality in a public space.”

For those who were there, and those who weren't, we've curated a gallery of images from a number of local photographers who were there on the day here on our website showing the group in rehearsal and at the Market Hall: Blue Eyed Soul Dance Company Gallery

Many thanks to Moya, Miriam, Sarah, Richard and Nigel for the photos. You can find a full set, and a gallery on our Flickr page: Market Hall Performance Set & Gallery

We also have some video filmed by Richard Benjamin, a snippet of which is here on our YouTube channel:
Performance Captured on Video on You Tube

We're editing all the snippets we have together and will post a final version up here as soon as we have it ready.

You can find out more about how the performance was developed by reading the previous blog post from Miriam here:Green Seen at Green Scene Blog Post

The media were very interested in the performance and we were delighted to be joined by Radio Shropshire and the Shropshire Star on the day. The story has also been covered by ArtSpider (Mencap).

Were were delighted to be able to deliver the performances thanks to funding from Shropshire Council’s Adult & Community Learning division, and were delighted to have opportunity to collaborate with Shrewsbury Market Hall and local businesses.

Although the company will be closing in March 2012 due to loss of Arts Council England funding, people wanting to get involved in dance opportunities can contact Education and Training Co-ordinator Rachel Liggitt who will deliver local work as a freelance artist.

Envision Dance Company perform at Culture Fest 2011- FILM!!!

Photos of the Contact Group's Market Hall performance

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wnbishop/sets/72157627257517764/

thanks to Mr Bishop for these absolutely gorgeous photos!!!!