2020 has been quite a year and dancers and dance teachers have had a steep learning curve to embrace technology and develop the skills sets to deliver effective distance and on line dancing and learning. The up side of this year is the incredible accessibility to learning that this new virtual medium has afforded. Dancers from as far and wide as China, Canada, the US and New Zealand have been able to participate together in my recent workshops, lectures and conferences. We are sharing knowledge and best practice in dance training in a way previously unheard of in my whole dancing life time. So if you participated in our on […]

We were around 80 dancers and teachers from across the globe from Malaysia, New Zealand and Australia through Europe: France, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK to Canada and the US who came together Wednesday 11th November for the virtual introduction to Attention and Focus in Dance. Colleagues joined from Dutch National Ballet, Scottish, Monaco and Houston Ballets as well as teaching faculty from the ISTD, RAD, Université du Quebec à Montreal, L’Ecole Superieure de Ballet de Quebec, Pôle Superieure National de Danse Rosella Hightower . . . Super exciting that there is such interest in this new frontier for dance – a vast unexplored territory of possible further performance […]

Attention is like a muscle that becomes stronger and more controllableover time. (Watson 2017, 250) If you just pause a moment over this internet page, notice how many millions of possible stimuli there are around you, all vying for your attention. That might be screen publicity, attractive images, pop ups, notifications – now take your attention away from the screen and notice any background sounds or noise you can hear – the traffic, children playing, a distant music. Take your attention up and notice the colours outside the window. Take your attention far away to the movement of the clouds and then suddenly inwards to any discomfort or tension you […]