DANCER PROFILES

Here we feature profiles on dancers trained in the Classical Greek technique.
In their own words they describe how Classical Greek Dance has influenced their training.

MEGAN DOWELL

Megan is a pupil of Karen Collings and attends the Totnes School of Dance, Devon. She has been offered places at Bird College, Performers College, Stella Mann, Millenium Dance & Cambridge Performing Arts. She is very keen to explain how Classical Greek Dance has helped her develop at a dancer. She writes:

Greek is Great !! I have used all the freedom of expression I have been encouraged to develop in the Greek technique to help me make all the other forms of dance uniquely my own and so my enjoyment and love of dance can really express itself without any inhibition.

Greek technique has strengthened my balance, line, control, and flexibility, which are all important factors in any form of dance ranging from Hip Hop Jazz to classical Ballet and everything in between. As a dancer who does not have the natural attributes for ballet, Greek allowed me to excel in a classical genre and encouraged my expressive and choreographic ideas.

Greek has also helped me with the performance side of dance. It is great to be able to use my sense of drama and develop my acting skills as I interpret Greek Myths. I find that I can convey all the emotions I feel in a dance whether it is a fast and fun jazz routine or a character dance full of fear and pain because of the encouragement I got during Greek Lessons to really open up and discover my strengths as a dancer.

Greek has given me the confidence to use my strengths in dance to advantage. For ballet I do not have the strongest turn out or best feet but I use my upper body, sense of performance and feeling for the music to draw the audience into my dance.

At the Ruby Ginner Awards, in addition to strong Classical Greek technique, I think the adjudicators look for performance and joy of dance which are so strongly encouraged in class and I feel this will help me at auditions for Dance College. To stand out in a studio of over 30 dancers you have to enjoy what you do and be able to project your enjoyment to those watching so they want to watch you. Greek has allowed me to freely express my enjoyment of dance and to transfer this freedom of expression to Tap, Jazz & Modern and Ballet.

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