Even as I watched the performance of Lore, I was aware that the following week I would be participating in a workshop led by one of the James Wilton Dance company members. So, it was with some trepidation I joined 11 others at DanceEast to learn a little snippet of the repertoire.

Ollie Robertson had planned the workshop well and seemed to come to us without the prejudice sometimes afforded to the older dancer. He was quick to assess that we were happy to move on the floor; which he explained was an integral part of James Wilton Dance choreography; and that we were all keen to keep moving and enjoy the ‘flow’ without unnecessary breaks.

Ollie taught us some of his own choreography followed by a small section of repertoire. He took time to breakdown a few of the movements to enable us to grasp the technical difficulties and detail. Although the piece was fast Ollie was undaunting in his belief that we could manage some of it and encouraged by our enthusiasm, he kept up the pace. By the end of the workshop, we had all experienced the pleasure found in the joy of dance and music. Even though some of us hadn’t quite mastered all the movement sequence or found full flow!!!

Talking later Andy from EncoreEast said ‘I thought it was the best teaching of a floor phrase I’ve ever had, combining almost all the tips for floorwork I’ve ever heard all shown and taught in one go… with space and time to really delve into them’.

And many agreed that it would be wonderful to invite Ollie back for a longer session.

Watch this space!

By Anna Mortimer