Peter’s Blog – Preparing for Orbit

Peter is a volunteer Dance Leader with DanceSyndrome and has recently taken on an administration role too, helping with our social media, collating research data and helping around the office. He has been heavily involved with DanceSyndrome since the very early days and he tries to join in with all aspects of our work, so we thought he was the perfect person to write a regular blog for DanceSyndrome! You can find out more about Peter in his case study https://dancesyndrome.co.uk/peters-story/

October has been a very busy month for Peter as DanceSyndrome prepared for the first performance of Orbit, a series of performances based on our relationship to nature and the solar system. If you would like to know more about Orbit, you can read about it in the News section of our website.

3^rd October 2016

I travelled down to Preston to have a meeting with Sophie about the dance by example training course which starts on the 4^th October and then me and David Darcy and David Corr started to make our trio piece for our new performance piece called Orbit it is about nature and how we interact with it our life.

4^th October 2016

I travelled down on the train to Preston to run the dance by example training course with Sophie so dancesyndrome can train more dance leaders. We started with some name games and a focus game so we can get to the know the trainee’s names and the they filled in some paper work then Sophie have a talk with each of the trainee one by one so we can help them in the course.

5^th October 2016

I travelled on the train to Preston to start making the full cast piece for the orbit piece. We all had to make a solo dance up from work we come up with from a piece of music so I made mine from the words butterfly’s, angels, yoga and spiritual. Then we put our solo dances in to duets then Sophie start to put the beginning of the piece together.

6^th October 2016

I travelled on the train to Preston to help Sophie and Becky to do a mass participation dance at the Act of Kindness Day at Uclan. We did some high energy routines and the fun bit was when the Act of Kindness lion joined in. We did some songs inside and some songs outside and it was a nice sunny day with a light breeze.

Photo of Act of Kindness Lion courtesy of Sarah Berry on Twitter

10^th October 2016

I travelled down to the DanceSyndrome office to start helping Dawn and Sarah with little jobs and get to see some nice country side from the train and different train stations I not seen before.

14^th October 2016

I travel down to Manchester to start 4 days of work with a choreographer called Aya Kabayashi from London for our obit performance. We did the 1^st day in Nuffield Health gym at the Printworks. We did some exercises on how to mobilized our bodies like we are made of oil and our heads and tail bone in dance and how to lead with a body part.

15^th October 2016

I got the tram to Sale with Pauline, Christine and Aya to do the 2^nd day of dancing at the Waterside Art Centre. We started to do some duet work about how to do the duets with purpose and meaning to make them stronger. Then Aya helped me to stretch out with my tense shoulders and gave me some advice how to release the tension in my shoulders. When we had finished the 2^nd day we all got the tram back to Manchester.

16^th October 2016

I met Pauline and Christine at Piccadilly train station and got on the train to Preston and then got a taxi to the Media Factory at Uclan to start the 3^rd day with Aya. We recapped the last 2 days and added a bit more to the Orbit piece of work. Then me and David Darcy tried getting pulled around the dance studio on the back of Jodie’s wheelchair. Then we did some army crawling on the floor then when we all had finished the day Sophie drop me, Pauline, Christine and Aya back to Preston train station to get the train back to Manchester.

17^th October 2016

I travel to Manchester for the last day with Aya so we can put section 1 and section 2 altogether. We practiced it a couple of times then filmed it so we can watch it back when Aya goes back to London. Then I quickly get down stairs to watch the Olympics and Paralympic parade. It was cool to see the tiger at the front of the parade holding a baton of fire. When all the athletes and Paralympic athletes went past it moved me just because is showed me what a disabled person can achieve when you put the hard work in and it was a nice way to finish the 4 days with Aya.

Photo of the Olympic lion taken by Peter.

24^th October 2016

I travelled to Preston to practice the trio with the 2 Davids. We worked with props and added a bit more to the trio to pull it all together. We started putting a piece of music to the trio piece, plus started making an 8 count sequence.

25th October 2016

I got the train to Preston to help Sophie to run the DBE training course. We started to use words to make a short sequences and dynamics to make them stand out. When we had finished I got the train back to Manchester to go and do my social night where I am the DJ at Top Club Little Hulton.

26th October 2016

I travelled down to Preston to help Sophie to build a flat pack bench for our Orbit show, while she ran the workshop with Jodie. I started to make the bench at 10am and finish the bench at 12pm, then I had some lunch. After I had a break I started to go over the duet I made with Jodie and all the other pieces plus the new piece we made with Aya.

29^th October 2016

I travelled down to London with Jen and Sophie  to do a workshop called Danzability in Greenwich. We talked about DanceSyndrome and did some fun games. When we finished we got the train back to Wigan North Western – it was a long day of travelling.

31st October 2016

I went down to Preston to practice the trio and continue with the props. This time we had the bench and newspapers we are using in the Orbit show then we started to add stuff to the end of the trio piece.

Join Peter next time to find out how the Orbit premier performance went! You can keep up to date with DanceSyndrome news as it happens on Facebook and Twitter.