This was Danceworks's 9th bi-annual showcase, and the 5th one that I have had the pleasure of witnessing. Danceworks is a privately-owned dancing school in Eccles, and give weekly evening and weekend tuition in many different forms of dance as well as singing, acting and Musical Theatre.
This evening the auditorium was full, the mood was high, and the expectation great. Having seen the showcases from this school before, I know that the standard is very high, and the students dedicated and professional. I always look forward to these events. Too old and too ungainly myself now, but once upon a time, I was up there myself, and so know only too well what training and commitment is necessary to produce pieces to this standard.
The showcase started in fine form with a medley of song, dance and acting from the Lloyd-Webber musical, 'School Of Rock'. The tiny tots came next to many 'ahs' from the audeince. Some of these only 3 or 4 years old and taking to the stage for the first time. Contemporary ballet is one of my favourite genres, and this wa next; a superb piece from the seniors, 'Feeling Good'. The first half continued through the next 13 items, switching between genres, stryles, age-groups etc, and then finished with the combined singing groups with a medley of 'Queen' hits. Powerful, meaningful, and rich tones with some nice harmonies.
The second act kicked off with 'Relight My Fire' from their Summer School group, and again we travelled vagariously through tap, commercial, jazz, ballet, contemporary etc to the show's finale, the Competition Team's condensed medley from Menken's 'Newsies'.
Personal favourites along the way were the aforementioned 'School Of Rock' and 'Feeling Good', 'Conga', 'Dancing Fool', 'Hit Me With Your Hot Note', 'Fame', 'Run Boy Run', 'White Swan', 'Dance Of The Flowers', 'Cosmic Love' and 'Newsies'.
The costuming, as always, was excellent, and this was ameliorated by some imaginative and evocative lighting and SFX. (haze and pyros). The choreography was always pertinent and within the capabilities of the students. There was good use of available space, a nice degree of change between full company, small group and individual work, and the pictures created were well devised. A few more lifts in certain dances would have upped the ante a little though. The students themselves were full of professionalism and dedication, and majority were full of the right attitude and poise required for each section. It was not all superior though sadly, and there were a couple of points which hindered this particular showcase. My biggest concern was with the sound levels. In the main, the music (on playbacks) was far too loud. When there are young students on stage singing solos or speaking dialogue over music, they were drowned out completely by the music. Such a shame. Even some of the dance numbers' music was set too loud. This was particularly evidenced in ther tap routines. The taps simply coiuld not be heard above the music and so there was no point in them tapping! That was such a shame. My second point comes with the flow and finesse of the show. There weres everal occasions where there were long pauses between each item, and we even had the main curtain closing for some of these. This lost the impetus of the show, and, especially in the second act, it felt a little "amateurish" (for the want of a better word). And sadly, what should have been a joyous but drilled and precision finale, was chaotic and messy to say the least sadly. Hopefully, this will have been attended to before the performances on Sunday.
That being said, Danceworks in Eccles continue to inspire and produce performers of extremely high quality, and once again, it was a most enjoyable 3 hours in their company.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 20.1.24
on - 20.1.24
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