61
Bo r l a s i a n 2 0 1 3
In School
However hard it was, it was undoubtedly a lot of fun and
ultimately a great laugh!
This year we have had to complete our Group piece and
Solo/Group Choreography. To start off our Group Pieces,
on 17
th
September our class had an exciting yet tiring
workshop from New Adventures (Matthew Bourne). We
learnt specific motifs and movements from the Children’s
March section andThe Gobstoppers section of‘Nutcracker’.
After the workshop, we had the foundations to start our
Group Pieces and the next few months proved difficult as
we all cemented our energetic and lively pieces.
Simultaneously we also began to think about and
mindmap ideas about what our stimuli for our solo/group
choreography would be. We all worked independently to
produce our very own dances.
Finally the day arrived, we must perform both our Group
piece and our Solo/Group choreography in front of not
only Mrs Hindley and a camera, but also an Examiner. To
add to this pressure, these performances were extremely
important as they were ultimately going to decide 60% of
our final Dance GCSE.
However, all the stress and hard work paid off, as Mrs
Hindley confirmed to us, after deliberating with the
Examiner, that we had in fact done very well. PRACTICAL
DANCE WAS OVER!
On the other hand, we had the theory to look forward
to. All the hard work over the past three years was finally
coming down to this pinnacle moment. As we all lined up
outside the gym for our final exam together as our GCSE
Dance class, there was a somewhat nostalgic atmosphere
in the air. However, as soon as we got out of that exam hall,
we were all bursting with excitement that our three years
of GCSE Dance were officially over.
Our GCSE experience was completed with the Senior
Dance show“Spectrum.”Year 11 performed their Children’s
March piece, which was inspired by “Nutcracker!” It was a
huge success and we received very good feedback. What a
way to end our GCSE dance! On behalf of the whole GCSE
class of 2013, thank you, Mrs Hindley.
Hayley Costanzo and Isla Hely Y11
Impact
Impact is a boys’hip-hop group running fromyear 7 to year
13 meeting once a week for rehearsals in the dance studio.
Boys’ hip hop is the school’s first male dance club and this
year was given to George and I to successfully run and to
carry on its tradition. Throughout the year, Impact have
been working on developing skills and choreography.
The final showcase of the year’s work was at the Borlase
annual dance show ‘Spectrum’. Here the group performed
a routine including a mix of street-dance and break-dance
to several modern tracks. This has been a real challenge as
it was our first taste of choreography. We knew we were
under huge pressure to produce something that allowed
the group to perform well. This year we are both very
proud of how far we have come and we look forward to
next year!
Haisun Griggs and George Chamberlain
My Experience with Dance at
Borlase
From a young age I had always shown an appreciation for
dance. This partially stemmed from repeated exposure to
the sassy choreography in the Spice Girls movie: ‘Spice
World’, one of the only videos thatmy childminder had, but
was also a result of the theatrical element of my personality
which exhibited itself freely early on. However, as is always
the case, biological maturation was accompanied by an
increased awareness of my actions and, like the majority
of 11 year old boys, Dance was something that I didn’t
even contemplate enjoying when I first started at Borlase
in September 2006. Despite this, Dance is the only subject
for which I have a distinct memory of my first lesson. I
remember feeling both overwhelmingly nervous as we
were made to stand in a circle and each state a different
type of dance and equally terrified of Mrs Hindley (then
Miss Brady) whose height did not render her any less
ferocious. It is more than likely that it was the fear of
provoking her wrath that made me apply myself with such
enthusiasm to our Year Seven Elements project and the
my first realization that I did enjoy dance came when I was
asked to perform in the sixth form dance on the element
‘oxygen’, a performance which consisted of me running on
stage, getting spun around, and then running off stage.
Nevertheless, it was this project, alongside Mrs Hindley’s
constant encouragement that ignited in me a passion for
dance and I began to look forward to Dance lessons.
In the Dance Department, year eight and Strictly Come
Dancing passed under the shimmer of the glitter ball,
followed by year nine to the distinctive falsetto of Michael
Jackson. My enjoyment of Dance continued to grow and
my decision to take it further into year ten and eleven was
aided by Mrs Hindley’s constant support and in spite of
a growing aversion to performing. And so began Dance
GCSE in September 2009 with a class of eleven with two
boys. As a group we instantly clicked and at the end of the
two years we emerged a family, supporting each other
throughout the turbulent times we had encountered.
