Alethia and Edd are the dream team to work with. They are amazing and I feel so privileged to have worked with them both. They encourage and inspire us and when we sometimes suggest that things are a bit hard, they agree and carry on! Their belief in us is so positive that it makes me want to try just that little bit harder to get better and be as good as I can possibly be.

During classes and rehearsals – particularly when they work together – they feed off each other seamlessly. They seem to use a different definition of ‘Once again from the side’ as we travel yet again and again and again across the studio! We add more layers to the movement we are creating; levels, flow, spirals, turns, working through the feet, extending different parts of the body and feeling the connections between them as I search for different ways of moving. I get better the more I do it, trying to remember the extra layers while still trying to hold onto previous ones. I’ve been taught to use my head more and how to focus on different places in the space around me, to use the space and treat it as part of the dance.

The whole experience has been a joy and while they’re teaching us they demonstrate the movements. They bend, they twirl, they do three rotations in one go, all the time flowing through the movements with a grace I watch with awe. They improvise with each other and it’s glorious to watch. We clap and then go ‘once again from the side’ and I try to squeeze just a little bit extra from myself. I have never been challenged like this before. They have been a delight to work with and these last few weeks of intensive rehearsals have been glorious. I didn’t think I would be able to keep up as well as I have. I didn’t realise what joy could come from such hard work.

Now it’s all come to fruition with our performance. I hope we did justice to Alethia and Edd and to ourselves and each other. We’ve put the hard work in….

What a fantastic show!

Thank you Alethia and Edd. 

By Ju Williamson