FLATFOOT SUMMER SCHOOL

(Up and coming Durban dancers facilitated by Flatfoot Dance Company’s dance training and Summer School. Pic by Val Adamson)

The award winning Flatfoot Dance Company will host its second annual four day dance Summer School from December 16 to 19, 2014. This intensive Summer School is aimed at pushing the technical skills of dancers in the contemporary idiom and will allow dancers (still training or already professional) to work in an environment with skilled choreographers, teachers and workshop facilitators.

“This is an opportunity for dancers to have great fun, get themselves into shape and open up to a life-changing dance experience.” says Lliane Loots, Artistic Director of the company. Dancers will be nurtured and supported as they take on the challenge of dancing for four full days with Flatfoot Dance Company. The Summer School is designed for dancers from the age of 12 and upwards, and “all levels of ability are welcome”, assures Loots. All dancers will receive a certificate of attendance and participation on completion of the 2014 Summer School.

The technical dance training will work in Flatfoot’s own ‘African Release Technique’, which is “a confluence of Graham, Hawkins, Horton and the American Skinner Release Technique”, explains Loots. Dancers who participate in the full programme will also work on choreography towards a performance at the end of the four days.

The Summer Intensive Teaching Team from the Flatfoot Dance Company includes Lliane Loots, Clare Craighead, Sifiso Khumalo, Sifiso Majola, Julia Wilson, Jabu Siphika and Zinhle Nzama.

There are two levels at which dancers can participate in the programme. The first option is the full four day Summer School Programme which will run from 09h30 to 15h00 across the four days. There is also a second option to partake only in the four morning technique classes which will run each day from 09h30 to 11h15.

The Summer School will take place at the Flatfoot Dance Studio and Square Space Theatre, both of which are on UKZN’s Howard College Campus, Durban. The cost of the full programme is R520 and the option of only the four technique classes is R320.

Applicants must contact Clare Craighead on 082 875 6065 or craighead@ukzn.ac.za (in the subject line type “summer school”) to secure their place for either Option 1 or 2 in Flatfoot’s Intensive Summer School.