School Matters 36

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ROYAL ACADEMY OF DANCE: INTERNATIONAL FONTEYN COMPETITION BRONZE

We extend our huge congratulations to Hannah Martin, who graduated from the IPS School of Dance in 2020 followed by a final pre-professional year at Elmhurst School for Ballet. Hannah was a finalist in the most prestigious of all the Royal Academy of Dance’s competitions: the International Fonteyn Competition. From a field of 97 dancers from around the world who had achieved the requisite marks at examinations and pre-selections, 15 dancers were chosen for this final competition. Judges included Dame Darcey Bussell, President of the RAD; Kevin O’Hare Director of the Royal Ballet; CEO and Artistic Director of Scottish Ballet Christopher Hampson and Irek Mukhamedov, Ballet Master of the Paris Opera Ballet. After several challenging rounds the winners were announced, and Hannah Martin was awarded a Bronze medal. We are thrilled with her success and delighted to report that she also secured a contract with Birmingham Royal Ballet to perform in the company’s Romeo and Juliet ! Hannah said, “I am filled with so much gratitude for the support I have been given on this journey and would like to thank all the dance teachers and my family who have helped me and pushed me forwards, not only in the successful moments but also in moments of difficulty and doubt. I could not have done this without you all, thank you from the bottom of my heart.” We are full of admiration for Hannah’s hard work, international competition and BRB success. Mr James Bartlett, Head of Expressive Arts

Smallman. With a female cast of 50, it was an honour to deliver such an important message in such a powerful and freeing way. Gendered violence is not an easy subject to address, but the stories and accounts need to be told. We started by reading through the text

language and vocal skills accordingly. Afterwards, we explored ensemble exercises, seeing how we could create the individual or become one soul, one voice. The director, Masha Kevinovna, then took our exploration and blocked the piece whilst running a technical rehearsal at the same time. It was chaotic! After an intense day we performed a rehearsed reading to an audience of 100 people. The response was incredible, and you could hear people discussing their own experiences with gendered violence as they left, it was shocking to hear how many had been affected. We had fulfilled our aim! I am proud to have been a part of such an important and powerful project.”

MADDY AT THE NYT

Congratulations to Drama Scholar Maddy Hunter, UVI who was invited to workshop a new play called Maryland with the National Youth Theatre. The play is hard-hitting with challenging and, sadly, current subject matter. Here is her account of the day. “I was a member of the ensemble in a National Youth Theatre production of Maryland written by Lucy Kirkwood. The play is based on gendered violence and tackles the heart-breaking stories of Sarah Everard, Bibaa Henry and Nicole LAMDA SUCCESS Many congratulations to all the pupils who rose to the challenge of preparing for their LAMDA acting examinations, both in person and over Zoom, with fantastic results. 64% gained a Distinction and 36% were awarded Merit; a reflection of dedication, commitment and hard work from our pupils under the superb leadership of LAMDA teacher Mrs Falconer. Medallists who achieved Distinctions were: Sofya Shmul, S10, Josh Titchen, PVI (Bronze) and LVIs

and analysing where the ‘episodes’ were. This technique allowed us to adapt our body

LAMDA silver medallists Rosie Wright and Finnius Towle, LVI

Finnius Towle and Rosie Wright (Silver). Special mention goes to Luke Wootton who left IPS with a Gold Medal Distinction. Luke started LAMDA in Senior 7 and steadily worked his way to the top. We are exceedingly proud of him. The visiting examiner was full of praise, describing the performance pieces as truthful, delightful and adventurous. We wish the pupils continuing success. Bravo! Mrs Kelly Quick, Head of Drama