YOUR STORIES

OUR HIGHLIGHTS

2012/13

122 employees in UK and Republic

of Ireland

111 employees and representatives

in international offices

196 freelance examiners

300 freelance teachers/guest lecturers

350 mentors

200 practical teaching supervisors

100 tutors

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Here we look back at just a few of the highlights of our year at the RAD. We would like to thank our staff, members, students and

supporters around the world who have all contributed toward our many successes. This

has been produced alongside our Annual Review & Report 2012/13.

GEnéE WELLInGTOn6–15 DEcEmbER 2012

Genée Dance Challenge and fundraising events The great success of the Genée was in large part due to the fundraising efforts of New Zealand members, teachers, students and supporters. A major thrust of their efforts came in the shape of the five Genée Dance Challenges (GDC) held nationwide from July to November 2012. These culminated in the GDC final held at the St James Theatre the night before the final of the main competition.

‘Dancer’s Own variations were the highlight of the competition

and a valuable addition to the competition format.’

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Pupils and parents from local dance schools contributed in many ways, from making sandwiches to donating supplies. And goods donated by local businesses allowed two raffles to be run on the day of the Auckland GDC competition, contributing to this event raising over NZ$5,000.

Other fundraising events included a very successful Gala Dinner with Darcey Bussell (in association with the very supportive New Zealand School of Dance), a quiz night, a masterclass given by Christopher Hampson of Scottish Ballet and a movie fundraiser at the Embassy Theatre. One studio’s nine-and-a-half hour ballet ‘Dance-a-thon’ also managed to raise nearly NZ$2,500.

the competition format. I was pleasantly surprised to see how each of the candidates brought their own unique qualities to the set repertoire.’

Larissa Kyoto-Ward Genée Dance Challenge Level 1 Winner

‘ Before the competition I was nervous but not really REALLY nervous. However when the award came out I was surprised and happy to come first… I will never forget this competition and I will keep trying to do my best.’

Genée report and winners 71 RAD-trained dancers between the ages of 15 and 19, from countries including Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Indonesia, Philippines, the UK, USA and Spain, competed in the run-up to the 2012 Genée Final which took place on 15 December 2012 in Wellington.

As well as performing a classical repertoire variation and specially choreographed solo (by commissioned choreographer Adrian Burnett), the competition featured a new Dancer’s Own section. This saw competitors perform an original solo, choreographed by themselves or their teacher. With competition at such a high standard, two gold and three silver medals were awarded.

Judge, Li Cunxin remarked: ‘I thought the standard was very high and the Dancer’s Own variations were the highlight of the competition and a valuable addition to

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Behind the scenes: a chaperone’s viewHamilton teacher Kerry Mills was invited to be one of the candidate chaperones for the Genée. Along with the RAD’s Maria O’Connor, she was responsible for looking after 70 students, taking care of everything from lost luggage and injuries to fixing costumes and tending to homesick dancers.

Things didn’t get off to the best start though, as on the first day there, Auckland was struck by a tornado which threw travel arrangements into chaos and meant that some students missed the initial briefing.

Eventually getting the students all in one place, Kerry got to know her charges over the build-up to the big event and the Genée that she saw, known as ‘the friendly competition’, certainly lived up to its reputation.

‘One of the things I enjoyed seeing most was the camaraderie

of the students grow, so that right through to the semi-finals there was more a feeling akin to a workshop or summer school

than a competition.’

Medals table Male

Gold Aurelian Child-de Brocas Trained by: Hilary Kaplan, Archibald McKenzie

Silver Harry Davis Trained by: Janne Blanch, Susan Massey, Steven McTaggart

Female

Gold Montana Rubin Trained by: Mark Reily, Peta Frith

Silver Kaena Ahern Trained by: Melinda Palmer

Silver Ariana Hond Trained by: Melinda Palmer, Heather Palmer, Allan Barry Harry Davis

Silver Medallist

‘ The best part for me was on the last day performing onstage with the rest of the finalists. Having a dress rehearsal of the Final before it all happened took away a lot of the nerves and just made performing that night the most exciting and fun performance experience I’ve had.’

Our Valentine’s Membership recruitment campaign, delivered on Facebook, was ‘Highly Commended’ at the MemCom Awards 2013.

GOInG SOcIaL

We experimented with new ideas: Genée 2012 saw the introduction of a daily ‘Tweet from Lynn’ directly from the studios in Wellington, and the official announcement of the new Choreographic Award for Dancer’s Own was made live via Twitter as well.

At the same time, Facebook provided a great platform to publish updates, images and videos from each day. This allowed fans around the world to follow events, enhancing the reach and the status of our flagship competition.

Elsewhere, our Valentine’s Membership recruitment campaign (also delivered on Facebook) was ‘Highly Commended’ at the MemCom Awards 2013.

FacTS anD FIGURES

55,000Facebook fans by July 2013, an increase of

16,000 from July 2012

11,200 Twitter followers by July

2013, an increase of 4,900 from July 2012

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ITaLIan SUmmER ScHOOL SUccESS

At RAD Italy, we held this year’s Summer School in Trentino. Mentions and scholarships were presented to the most outstanding students and we were also able to award the Maria Pia Bursary and to run the Sara Acquarone Competition. These award winners with residential places at the next year’s Summer School in Italy and for the Performance Course and Summer School in London respectively.

FUnDRaISInG HIGHLIGHTSThe Challengenée campaign ran for over a year from November 2012, with our Scottish membership alone raising over £36,000 (out of an overall total of £65,000) for the 2013 Genée in Glasgow.

Our membership came up with an abundance of money-raising schemes, from raffles, cake sales and performances to the Genée Uncovered calendar featuring tasteful images of RAD examiners and teachers, and dancers from Dance School of Scotland and Scottish Ballet.

Financial Controller Richard Slatford and Fundraising & Development Director Matthew Cunningham also took part in a ballet class taught by Artistic Director Lynn Wallis. And, in the thick of it yet again, Matthew also took part in the now infamous Highland Fling Humiliation along with Director of Finance and Administration Richard Thom and the RAD regional managers. The online video of their performance became a minor viral hit!

Our Scottish membership alone raised over £36,000.

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a FamILY aFFaIR Three generations of RAD Registered Teacher from Brazil, Lenira, Rosana and Mariana Borges. Lenira Borges took part in the first teachers’ course in Brazil in the early 1970s.

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STUDEnT mEmbERSHIpWe now offer complimentary membership to our Faculty of Education students. This lasts for the duration of their studies and offers a variety of benefits.

‘My favourite thing about being an RAD member is that it keeps me connected to the

rest of the world. Being in Aruba it’s usually difficult for us to

hear about what’s coming up, so with this I can see videos,

hear about competitions, festivals and read other information

available there.’

Samantha Juppa, Student Member

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baRbIE cOmES TO THE RaDFacTS anD FIGURES

500+young dancers between

the ages of 3–8 took part in the Barbie

Ballet Class

27 RAD schools were

involved in the Barbie Ballet Class Weekend

across England and Scotland

In March, over 500 dancers between the ages of 3–8 took part in the Barbie Ballet Class Weekend. This was held at 27 RAD schools across England and Scotland.

Run in partnership with Mattel UK and Universal Pictures, the project was set up to encourage newcomers

to ballet. It was supported by our president, Darcey Bussell, and Laurretta Summerscales from English National Ballet. Central Scotland Ballet School (right) were winners of the competition, and got to perform in front of Darcey at RAD headquarters.

cELEbRaTInG pHILIp RIcHaRDSOn

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2013 marked the 50th anniversary of the death of Philip Richardson. To celebrate his life and work, the Society for Dance Research organised a day devoted to the achievements of this key figure in the development of British dance in the 20th century.

Library staff presented an overview of the Richardson Archive collections,

reflecting his wide-ranging dance interests and activities, from his writings on historical and social dance, to his organisation of ballet programmes and ballroom competitions. The presentation formed the basis of the library’s first archive exhibition, mounted in our main reception in June.

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This would be our first ever ‘virtual launch’: a documentary, streamed via the website and staggered across time zones to reach viewers

around the world.

FIRST EvER vIRTUaL LaUncH OF nEW SYLLabI

Progressions was the documentary produced for the new Advanced Foundation (Male and Female) and Advanced 1 and 2 (Female) syllabi. Over June and July, the creative panel worked toward getting the film ready for a live ‘virtual launch’ for September when it would be shared with our membership around the world via the RAD website.

The final film would include demonstrations of new content as well as student reactions to the work. It would also feature discussions with Lynn Wallis, Paula Hunt and Jonathan Still on the thinking behind the syllabi, along with messages from Darcey Bussell and Luke Rittner.

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an ExcITInG nEW cOmmUnITY DancE pROjEcT FOR RaDIaTE — bELOnGInG TO OnE bIG cREaTIvE TRIbESchools are under constant pressure to meet their commitments, which makes it all the more impressive that Beatrix Potter Primary School offered to open their doors and host a new venture for RADiate. This project would provide children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) in primary schools around Wandsworth the opportunity to join up and dance together.

The plan, put into action by Linda Kendall and Mandy de Leon, from Wandsworth’s moderate learning disabilities team and Judith Erkek at Beatrix Potter, was for the two-hour RADiate dance session to be shared between them: the first hour for the children from other schools in the borough, the second, for children with SEN at Beatrix Potter.

The two groups included children from years 2–6, with a range of SEN including both learning and physical disabilities. The aim was for them to come together in a creative dance session, where they would also benefit from socialising and making friends with other children.

When I went to see how things were developing, the school was buzzing as children from visiting schools arrived with their staff. In the time it took them to walk to the school’s lovely dance studio, they were pointing out the artwork on display and talking with each other, as well as with teachers and children from Beatrix Potter.

‘Great!’ I said to myself, ‘This new venture is already proving to be so much more than the sum of its parts!’

canaDIan mUSIcaLITY TOUR

Lynn Wallis (RAD Artistic Director) and Jonathan Still (Music Development Manager) delivered a teachers' course together in Canada for the first time. Their two, two-day courses in Alberta and British Columbia attracted members from far and wide, with many teachers even flying in to take part.

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FacTS anD FIGURES

The GCSE and A Level Dance students once

again achieved higher than average results with:

100% pass rate A*–C at GCSE.

83% pass rate A–C for

the AS Level.

83%pass rate A*–C for the

A2 Level students.

271 The number of students

who participated in RADiate sessions.

103 The number of

school teachers and teaching assistants who participated in RADiate sessions.

Emma, the RADiate teacher, has put together lessons that make it simple for each child to adapt movement ideas in their own way. I was impressed to see them working so hard to find their own version of a task — different to their peers — without any prompting from her or the teaching assistant.

The improvements to their self-esteem were also clear to see, and I was reminded again of the power of dance to produce an energy that can connect those involved as a common tribe.

And there are more great things happening. Beatrix Potter has also made a room available for the visiting children to stay in after their dance session, to enjoy more art activities and social-bonding time.

Halfway through the year, another cluster of Wandsworth primary schools will take their turn to join in this new venture. We hope to work in this way with schools in other boroughs, to create more dance tribes in collaboration with RADiate.

Sue Burton, Lead Tutor RADiate

‘I was reminded again, of the power of dance to produce an energy that can connect

those involved...’

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‘By the final class, I could sense that each group had gained a level of agency and

self-direction [ … ] anticipating and immediately embodying the quality and

dynamics of each movement.’

DancE FOR LIFELOnG WELLbEInG

Our ‘Dance for Lifelong Wellbeing’ project secured funding of just under £50,000 from the Skills Funding Agency, to work with older learners in the community and improve their health and wellbeing through dance. This provided training and mentoring for six teachers to lead specialist classes, and allow older learners to take part in tailored classes.

The results were shared in a project report, which was published in July 2013. The success of the classes was highlighted by teacher Helen Linkenbaugh:

‘ By the final class, I could sense that each group had gained a level of agency and self-direction [ … ] anticipating and immediately embodying the quality and dynamics of each movement.’

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In April 2013 we hosted our first three-day conference, on ‘Dance for Lifelong Wellbeing, featuring dance professionals and key figures from organisations such as Age UK, the Centre for Research on Ageing and Gender, and Dance UK. The event attracted an international audience and concluded with an afternoon of intergenerational dance performances by Akādemi, Step into Dance, Company of Elders, Dance United, Elmhurst School of Dance and the fabulously named Growing Older (Dis)gracefully.

REacHInG OUT

Being able to perform an arabesque is a distinct advantage when reaching for the aid of a bamboo stem to help you over a rocky river bed in the tropical Caribbean rainforest. It’s not all a day at the beach here!

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bEcOmInG a bEnESH nOTaTOR

Irène Savary found out about Benesh in 2009 when she studied Score Reading for Dancers at English National Ballet School. ‘Benesh was part of the curriculum and I found it very interesting.’

Despite a busy performing career — working with Ballet Central, English National Ballet and Scottish Ballet — Irène has elected to continue her studies by enrolling on the Benesh Institute’s Certificate in Benesh Movement Notation: ‘I want to extend my knowledge of the system and plan to become a Benesh notator when I eventually stop dancing. In the meantime I think being able to read Benesh will be really useful to me as a dancer.’

cHanGInG pERcEpTIOnS In SOUTH aSIa THROUGH baLLET

FacTS anD FIGURES

108 employees and

representatives in international offices

1,031 students from 39

countries enrolled on FoE programmes

14,000members in 79 countries

aUSTRaLIa’S nEW HEaDqUaRTERSRAD Australia opened their newly redeveloped headquarters in Sydney in January 2012. At a cost of over A$1.5 million, the building has become fully operational and over the past year, as well as hosting staff offices, is now the venue for exams, courses, classes and meetings.

The new facilities prompted the following glowing comments (among many) in the opening event guestbook:

‘ So wonderful to have premises we can be proud of’

‘ A great improvement and exciting for all, especially for exam students. They now have the facilities they deserve’

‘ A refreshing asset to take the RAD into the future. A wonderful legacy for the next generation’

‘A refreshing asset to take the RAD into the future. A wonderful legacy for the next generation’

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where opportunities have been limited, and challenges greater for ballet teachers. The enthusiasm for presenting ballet as an outlet for expression is only the first step. They see it as a chance to change young peoples’ perceptions of ‘western’ culture. I’m hoping the RAD network in South Asia will see exponential growth in the coming years as these avenues are explored through the region.’

Ranmali Mirchandani was appointed RAD National Manager for South Asia in August 2013, representing Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan, where there is a growing interest in RAD exams and qualifications:

‘ While India and Sri Lanka have been part of the RAD network for over 20 years, it has felt especially rewarding in Pakistan and Bangladesh

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‘As with sport, dance is great at getting young people active and raising awareness of the

importance of keeping fit and healthy.’

STEp InTO DancE

Step LIVE! 2013 was a definite highlight of our year in which the choreography of one of our Youth Company members was included in the show, and we had our first ever fully integrated piece with children from Evelyn Grace Academy (a mainstream school) and Garratt Park (a Special Educational Needs school) dancing together.

And, to top off a great year, Olympian Mo Farah offered his support and encouragement for our work: ‘As with sport, dance is great at getting young people active and raising awareness of the importance of keeping fit and healthy! It is essential for schools to have programmes like Step into Dance, as it provides them with access to dance professionals who can inspire the students and encourage wellbeing. I applaud this programme.’

Step into Dance is a partnership project between Royal Academy of Dance and the Jack Petchey Foundation.

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