Roehampton Dance degree students honoured with awards for festival’s success
- Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Six students from the University of Roehampton have been recognised by their Vice-Chancellor with awards paying tribute to the success of a week-long Dance festival in May which they curated, organised and ran.
The students, Emilie Barton, Hannah Brown, Liz Carter and Louise Everett, who are in the third year of their Dance Studies degree, and Sophie Stokes and Nia Cowley, who both study Dance and Drama, received a Roehampton Award at a ceremony held in their honour. The awards were given for the active voluntary roles they played in the Footprint Dance Festival committee at the University, which has won worldwide recognition for the quality of its Dance research.
Dr Ann R David, Head of the University’s Department of Dance, said: “Our Footprint festival is highly respected the student and staff body here at Roehampton, as well as the dance industry for the standard of both the performances and the educational aspects. This year’s committee made an exceptional effort to curate a high profile set of artists and experts, including Choreographer Rosemary Lee. We’re very proud of what these six have achieved; the skills they have learnt both from performance and backstage with budgeting and marketing will give them a real head start in their careers after graduation.”
Each student received an award from the University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Paul O’Prey and Deputy Provost Professor Julie Hall. All six are third year students and organised the festival from scratch at the same time as completing their degree studies.
This year’s Footprint festival included morning workout sessions to energise participants, workshops on Eastern classical dance, artistic improvisation, tap dancing, and a session with student-led Third Row Dance Company and performances every evening.
The festival is a chance for students to learn to curate professional dance artists and how to work successfully in the sector, as well as learn from performances. Talks were given by Rosemary Lee, freelance choreographers, and professional careers advisers.
Following the festival, a series of films have been produced charting the build-up to the event and each day’s activities. These can be seen by visiting the festival’s website.
The six students also received a grant of £800 to take part in the annual Wandsworth Festival, organised by the local council, providing outreach work in schools in Roehampton. The children they taught then performed on the last day of the Footprint Festival.