Iona Waite awarded BBC Performing Arts Legacy Grant

We are delighted to announce that our Education Officer Iona Waite has been awarded the BBC Performing Arts Legacy Grant.

Iona has fifteen years of experience working as part of ACE Youth, ACE dance and music’s professional company and as an Education Officer. She completed a Foundation course in Contemporary Dance at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance and then went onto study Dance and Professional Practice at the University of Wolverhampton.

Iona has been awarded £9,600 to continue her professional development and over the next 6 months she will be visiting 5 international companies: Josette Baiz- France, Alvin Ailey-New York, Zfin Malta Dance Ensemble and Flatfoot Dance Company-South Africa. Iona will also be looking at the training and progression routes of their young people.

Iona said ‘This is amazing opportunity for me. It will develop my professional practice, widen my artistic experience but most importantly through this experience I will be able to encourage potential, build confidence and nurture inventiveness with the next generation of young people here at ACE dance and music’.

Digbeth is good are talking about #acespacelaunch

Another lovely blog about our upcoming ‪#‎acespacelaunch‬ on May 14th!

http://digbeth.org/ace-dance-music/

Bria talks about ACE dance and music

Hi! This is the ACE dance and music Blog, in this blog you will find out about all the amazing activities that are behind the scenes. My name is Bria, I am part of ACE Youth and I have been here for about four years and I have worked my way up through the different class groups. There are five different classes depending on your age and at the moment I am in ACE Youth New Recruits. This dance group leads up to the ACE Youth Company.

Recently, we achieved our Arts Award which was a great achievement. This is a qualification that involves taking part in an arts activity, going to an arts event, researching our arts inspiration and sharing our skills with others. The Arts Award I passed was bronze and the ACE Youth Company passed the silver Arts Award. This silver Arts Award looked much harder but I am willing to give it a try eventually!

Other than passing our Arts Award, we have recently begun ballet classes and we are learning a new piece of dance called ‘Loss of Innocence’.  ACE were fortunate enough to have some ballet bars donated to them by Birmingham Royal Ballet which has allowed us to start the ballet classes. I believe this is a good style to be taught as we can really improve our technique and become more versatile in our dance styles.

‘Loss of Innocence’, our new dance piece, is about children that are forced to go to war. We have to think about children in this horrific position and try to portray this challenging, tough role throughout the performance. It has been a very good success so far during the dance sessions, but we still have more to give and hopefully we will shine in our performance coming up soon. Thank you for reading ACE Dance and Music blog!

ACE hit the big style!

It looks like the Birmingham press are getting just as excited as us about the launch of our newly refurbished dance studio, ACE SPACE at ACE dance and music!
Take a look at this lovely feature by Style Birmingham Magazine about our launch event on May 14th.

‪#‎acespacelaunch‬

www.stylebham.com/life/ace-space-dance/

ACE Youth members talk about their next big adventure at Northern School of Contemporary Dance

I am incredibly excited to begin a new chapter as a professional dancer in training at Northern School of Contemporary Dance. I am delighted that I am going to be able to see myself improve every single day with the help of experienced choreographers and performers, although i know it will be a challenge. Pushing myself beyond my limits and reaching the very top is all I look forward to. I love seeing results and NSCD will help me to become the dancer that I’d like to be, and most importantly, I will always give it 100% because as ACE taught me..”get stronger, dance for longer!”

I am ready to embark on this new journey, I’m nervous, in a good way, but I’m definitely ready for this challenge and I will embrace every moment.

Ines Kanyinda

Having recently been introduced to ACE Youth in September 2014, I immediately warmed to the dancers and the leaders and I then knew that I wanted to go onto further education and train in dance.

Being offered a place at Northern School of Contemporary Dance, just seven months after joining ACE Youth, meant a lot to me, as this highly credited and influential school were willing to accept me in my early stages of my journey. The offer came in the form of a glimmer of hope, which will propel me to go on to become a stronger dancer, ready for the future.

I owe gratitude to ACE for building up my strength in preparation for the audition, in particular to Iona Waite who closely mentors ACE Youth and Gail Parmel for her constant encouragement. Being welcomed into a dance community not only at ACE but at Northern School of Contemporary Dance ensured me that dance is a journey one can take alongside the comfort of others.  I hope that the existing and future members of ACE Youth go onto further education because it is simply an amazing opportunity.

Grace Williams

On the 18th February I had my audition at The Northern School of Contemporary Dance. This was my third audition so I was already aware of the audition process, but there was a lot more pressure for me to do well because this was the school I wanted to go to. I was told how the day was set out because Chanelle (who trains at NSCD) told me about her audition experience. There was a ballet class, contemporary class, then solos, and afterwards there was a improvisation class, interviews and a physical exam. I was feeling confident about my solo as I had help from Iona and I knew that I could show my strengths in the contemporary class, but ballet was what unnerved me because I hadn’t had much training, but on the day it went better than I expected and the whole day went really well. I made sure I was attentive and I really listened to what the teacher was instructing us to do, in particular the improvisation class. It wasn’t like a set piece of choreography to follow so it’s important to listen and understand the essence of the movement and dynamics, speed and direction the teacher wanted. I met some really nice people and learnt a lot about conservatoire training. I’m really excited to be attending NSCD in September.

Chelsea Gordon

I am very excited to be starting the BA Honours degree course in contemporary dance at NSCD. I am currently in my final term on the foundation course at NSCD and I am enjoying it more than I ever imagined. I always dreamed of going to dance school and it is still strange to be walking into a building where everybody walks around in socks and sits in strange positions on sofas. I have learnt so much so far about my body and most importantly ‘how to work’…How to work and push my body little by little each day to reach its full potential. I was more nervous this year at my audition than last year, I think that was because I have experienced the school and the training and was 100% sure I wanted to spend the next 3 years training there. I knew I wanted to be a dancer before I came to Northern but after doing the foundation course I’m even more sure that this is the career for me!

I am now looking forward to my end of year show and excited to start my degree level training in September!

Chanelle Harris

My audition at Northern School of Contemporary Dance was such an amazing experience. I found the atmosphere so creative, homely and welcoming, the teachers were also friendly and encouraging.

The day consisted of ballet, technique, solos, creative, then interviews. I was extremely lucky to get to the final stage, as the competition was incredibly high. I know at NSCD l will be pushed, nurtured and supported to become a strong, knowledgeable dancer and I can’t wait to start!

Rickay Hewitt-Martin

ACE dance and music in the press!

News of our Launch Event on Thursday, May 14th for the newly refurbished ACE SPACE has reached the press!

Read the full article by clicking here

Arts Award success!

On Wednesday 23^rd April 2015, twenty of our young people successfully completed and passed their Arts Award. Fifteen bronze awards and five silver awards were achieved and we couldn’t be prouder, well done to all children and staff involved! Arts Award inspires young people to grow their arts and leadership talents: it’s creative, valuable and accessible. To find out more about Arts Award please visit www.artsaward.org.uk

ACE dance and music launch ACE SPACE

On Thursday 14th May, we will officially be launching our newly refurbished studio, ACE SPACE. This has been an ambition of ours for a long time and we are incredibly proud that after many years of fund raising we have finally reached our goal!

ACE SPACE allows us to deliver our extensive class programme, develop our own work and offer rehearsal space to visiting companies. We believe it will be a brilliant space for practitioners across the art forms and we look forward to welcoming everyone to the space.

If you would like any information about ACE SPACE please contact admin@acedanceandmusic.com

ACE Youth members move onto new challenges!

We are delighted to announce that five more of our ACE Youth members have been offered a place at Northern School of Contemporary Dance. Chelsea Gordon, Rickay Hewitt-Martin, Grace Williams, Chanelle Harris and Ines Kanyida will be embarking on their new adventure in September 2015. We wish them all of the luck in the world and hope this training will provide them with the necessary skills for a successful future.

Rita Braineryte talks about her work placement with ACE

“This year for my work placement experience I was offered a place at ACE dance and music. It was a great opportunity for me to gain new experience in the dance industry and gain new skills. I had a chance to meet everyone who is involved with this successful company and also join the classes with ACE professional dancers. My placement was very interesting as I was not only absorbing the lessons but I could also dance and see how professional dancers and choreographers are using different methods to teach the class. I had a great time and if in the future I will have a chance to go take part in classes at ACE I definitely will.”