Sixteen children in the Upper Dales have taken part in a fun-packed Dance and Art Summer School coordinated by The NASH and Janet Seymour’s School of Dance. The children aged between six and ten attended four consecutive days at The NASH in Hawes, with each session led by a different specialist teacher. Local dance guru Janet Seymour taught diverse dance including country, tap and may pole. Hannah Smith who currently teaches at a dance school in Ireland led a musical theatre day, teaching the children dance and acting sequences from the movie Moana. B-Boy Bobak, freelance break dancer and teacher at Yorkshire Dance in Leeds, ran a packed day of breakin’ in which the children learnt routines using hip hop styles and also tried their hand at improvised freestyling. Finally, felting specialist Andrea Hunter from Hardraw led a day in which children made dancing figures with layers of wool - capturing the moving human form in the amazing felting process.
Emily Rowe Rawlence who runs The NASH said: "we aimed to expose the children to new and exciting art forms. It has been fantastic to see them working with a range of inspiring teachers from near and far with totally different specialisms, and I’ve been so impressed with how much they have learned in a short time. It’s also been a great opportunity for the children to mix with different boys and girls. I loved watching the kids practising their new moves and skills throughout lunch break in the beck-side garden!”.
Janet Seymour said: “I am delighted to be asked to work in this lovely venue in the beautiful location of the Upper Dales. How lucky we are to have these facilities for our classes. An added bonus for me was to see former student Hannah Smith take an exciting Musical Theatre class and former student Natalie Raw assist each day looking after the students. I shall miss The NASH during the holiday period but look forward to beginning ballet classes again in September”.