LAST Saturday NorthWestDance held the annual U.Dance festival at the Lowry theatre. Quays News entertainment reporter Jessica Fox went along…
This year the organisation received the largest amount of applications, with the highest standard of dancers and performances ever! The application process must have been tough due to the performances on the night being so outstanding. The show itself was the end ceremony to celebrate with family, friends and the general public the talent the North West has but also a brilliant platform for the youth companies to share their work.
However for the dancers it was an early start in the studios, the day began with workshops and classes ranging from Bollywood to contemporary. This allowed the dancers to learn new material and new techniques to give them a broader knowledge of the dance industry and what the North West has to offer.
By bringing the hundreds of dancers together it allowed them to share skills and techniques but most of all make friends with other dancers who share the same passion. Getting closer to the evening performance each company was allowed to have a certain amount of time in the stage space where they got to work one on one with the lighting technician to create an overall performance for the evening. The lighting on the night created a very professional performance and allowed the dancers to highlight the atmosphere they wanted to create for the audience.
When the evening started the Quays theatre in the Lowry began to fill up with people who had come to support the dancers and sit back and enjoy the performance. The show was split into two halves, with an interval half way through allowing the audience to go out of the theatre space and enjoy the refreshments on offer.
The whole show was very diverse with a range of styles, ages and abilities on stage. Another aspect that was uplifting was the mixed gendered companies – to see the whole community embracing and sharing their passions through movement was exhilarating to watch.
As well as the actual dancers performing on stage there was some video performance footage, this showed how dance can be explored in so many different ways, it presented dance and film collaborated together and how this is a new modern concept that NorthWestDance wants to embrace.
Cando2 will perform Behind the Mirror at U. Dance today @trinitylaban! Wish them luck… pic.twitter.com/tD8MMeJ2Iq
— Candoco Dance Co (@candocodance) March 13, 2016
The second performance in the first half of the show was by the youth company ‘Breakout’, this company is made up of male and females with people of all ages. It brought theatre and dance together presenting a story with props and physical theatre movement.
This performance was very inspirational as it showed people with different abilities coming together to help each other learn and improve on their dance skills. It was also all about having fun on stage, which is what dance should represent all the time, with all the dancers smiling and showing their enthusiasm stage.
A performance by ‘Ludus Youth Dance Company’ ended the show. This performance was very comical and exciting to watch, all the dancers had clown like make-up on, a suit jacket with tie and shirt and male underwear. This performance was a mixture of advance contemporary movement and also physical theatre, throughout they used vocals and facial expressions to draw the audience into their performance.
Overall all the performances were of a very high standard and it was obvious to the audience that a lot of hard work and passion had gone into the rehearsal process up to the final show.
As well as U.Dance being held in the Lowry theatre they will also be hosting the annual National Youth Dance Festival 2016 in association with Youth Dance England and its consortium partners Dance UK, ADAD (Association of Dance of the African Diaspora) and NDTA (National Dance Teachers Association)!
Well done to all the dancers and everyone whom was involved it was inspirational to watch.
By Jessica Fox
@jessicaafoxx97
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