21 November 2019 12:24

Project B inspires Christchurch Boys

The Royal Academy of Dance was thrilled to hold its second Project B workshop in New Zealand - two action packed days of ballet, contemporary & hip-hop held at Levings School Of Dance in Christchurch.

24 boys between 8-18 with a variety of skill levels took part; including some that had never taken a dance class before. Over the two days they worked together to create 3 incredible pieces for a special showing of work to wow friends and family.

Our wonderful tutors were, Ballet with Daniel Cooper, former dancer of Atamira Dance Company, Black Grace Dance Company, Douglas Wright Dance Company and Auckland Theatre Company;  Hip Hop with Caleb Gopal, New Zealand representative in the USA Hip Hop International World Championships; and Contemporary with Ekaitz Espino, Former dancer of Gavina Ballet , the European Ballet , Santamaria Compania de Danza, Halberstadt City Theatre  and Ballet Pforzheim.

Contemporary Tutor Ekaitz Espino shares with us his experience.

"Project B was a great event, one that the boys and also tutors seemed to enjoy. In the Contemporary section of the workshop, all groups learned a simple combination with some basic contemporary dance technique elements such as leg, arm and body swings and some simple fall and recovery sequences. With the boys that elected contemporary we created a choreography using again some of the elements used in the combination and some new elements. They had the chance to choreograph part of the dance with assistance of some choreographic tools that I presented to them on the first day.

One of the most enjoyable things was seeing the different age and ability boys coming together. There were boys with large experience in dance and some with no previous experience, but they all worked as a group in a safe, non-judgemental environment. All in all a great experience."

Project B is an RAD global initiative that provides a range of initiatives to widen access to dance for boys and young men and to encourage more to take up ballet.  It also encourages a supportive and collaborative community for boys and young men within the dance world. For more information see Project B New Zealand