Ranan SchoolConnect Week Day 3: Rhythm Workhshop with Ranan

The third day of the Ranan SchoolConnect Week with students of La Martiniere for Boys and Akshar saw a Rhythm Workshop by Debashree Bhattacharya and Vikram Iyengar of Ranan. Playing with numbers, beats and beats within beats, tried to develop a sense of how dance forms like Kathak use rhythm, and also how playing with rhythm can be the base for a range of performance.

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SchoolConnect Week Day 1: lecture demonstration by Scottish Dance Theatre

The first Ranan SchoolConnect Week kicked off on 1 November 2012 with a lecture demonstration by Scottish Dance Theatre at La Martiniere for Boys, Calcutta. Students from LMB and Akshar attended. SDT was represented by Artistic Director James MacGillivray, and dancers Natalie, Em, Matthew and Lewis. Beginning with a fun 'shaking out the body' session involving all the students, SDT took us through insights into their work - talking a little about Contemporary Dance followed by excerpts from their performance tomorrow, and examples of their improvisatory creative process. Throughout, the students were asked for responses to pieces - what did they read, feel, respond to. No proper stage or facilities, no technical support, no proper costumes ... and yet SDT made us all feel the magic, joy and power of dance every step of the way.

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