EBZ Dance Festival
WHAT is the EBZ Dance Festival?
Every year the EBZ dance academy (Estudio Begoña Zabala) organizes a dance festival in June to show the dancing skills they have developed throughout the year, and every group shows their various choreographies. For this festival a lot of preparation and work goes on and I volunteered to help organize this festival. I will help the coordinators with the choice of music, the clothes the students will wear at the show, I will help with the planning of the schedule for each specific group, and I will make a playbill with the schedule for the audience.
During the months of March, April and May and June I will be helping organize the festival, and on the 6th of June the show will take place.
Personal Goal
I hope that by helping organize the festival and making sure everything is well organized and planned in advance will help a lot the coordinators and will be pleased with me. I hope to make sure that the festival is a success and that everyone is comfortable and satisfied. That way I will also improve my event organizing skills.
To achieve these goals I will be working months in advance offering my help every time to maximise the efficiency and prepare the festial the best way possible.
Learning Outcomes identified:
-
Increased their awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth.
I will increase my ability work with others and the planning skills
-
Undertaken new challenges
I will undertake a new challenge, as I have never planned any dance festival before
-
Worked collaboratively with others
I will work collaboratively with the teachers, and the bosses of the dance academy.
-
Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities
I will offer my help all the time, and continue work in preparing the festival every day.
-
Developed new skills
I will develop new skills, as I have never tried anything that has to do with planning a festival for many people.
PROPOSAL
March
First of all, I must say, that preparing a festival is not easy at all, lots of planning in advance takes place.
The selection of the music was done at the start, every group had different songs they had begun learning at the start of the year. To chose the song for the festival, we made votations within the groups and the song that most people preferred was the one they will be performing in the festival in June. The songs chosen were:
D1= (little kids) "SONRISAS Y LAGRIMAS"(REMIX)
D2= 5-6 year olds"MARY POPPINS"(INSTRUMENTAL)
D3. "SÚPER MARIO BROS(LONDON PHILARMONIC ORCHESTRA)
D4. "PAQUITA"(L.MINKUS)
D5. "ROMEO Y JULIETA"(PROKOFIEV)
D6. "CHANDELIER"(VITAMING STRING QUARTET)
D7. "TAKE FIVE"(VERSIÓN MICHEL CAMILO)
CONTEMPORÁNEO. "RUN BOY RUN"(WOOD KID)
DANZA MODERNA NIÑAS.(REMIX)
JAZZ JOVENES(REMIX)
JAZZ MEDIANAS(REMIX)
After the songs were chosen, I sat down with the teachers (including the director of the academy) and we checked the songs to see if they were okay, or if we had to change some, but we agreed that they were good. When the teachers finish their choreographies I will organize a list with the timing and order and I will give it to the technician and then check if it is correct.
The teachers are currently practicing their choreographies, meanwhile the boss and I are searching for the clothes the girls and boys will be wearing at the festival.
April
Now that the songs are ready, we will start with the clothes. I must say that I am learning a lot about planning and organizing events, my strength in this area is increasing a lot, and I hope it continuous to get better. There are 11 groups and our budget was not very high, so first we looked at the clothes from last year. It was very hard, because some of the groups had changed a lot since last year and the outfit would not look good with the new choreography. Because of that, I thought it would be okay that the group dancing to "Super Mario Bros" could wear last year's clothes, which was pretty basic (red dress) and the youngest group could also wear lst year's dresses. For the group "Jazz Young" I thought a maroon coloured dress would look good and I knew we could find some cheap ones in Primark. Hence, we had the ret of the budget to buy some new outfits for the rest of the groups.
April
The choreographies are almost finished and everyone is becoming super excited, inclusing myself. I asked the teachers to time their choreography and beginning and finishing times of their performances and sat done with the director of EBZ to come up with an order of appearance for the final show. I then arranged a meeting with the technical director and he arranged the songs with the right time and order of the final performance. This is getting real!! I feel like I am giving a lot of time into preparing this festival but it is really being worth it as I am collaborating with everyone in the academy and really enjoying the experience.
May
The festival is almost here! The director and I have already gone a couple of times to "Irlandesas", the school where the festival will take place, and have checked the sound, the space, and begun to hang the decorations.
The teacher will go next week to see how they can arrange their students and they will take that same week their students and we will have a mock final performance.
Actual day of the festival
What a success!!! I had lo leave early because I have my SAT exam the next day and had to study. Nevertheless, I went there soon and helped all of the girls get ready. Before going, some of the students and I went to a flower shop and bought the teachers and the director some flowers to thank them for their great job. It was unbelievable the number of people that came. I wasn't even sure if they were all going to fit (although the room was huge). When it was almost the time established for the festival to start I went outside, checked that no one was still outside waiting to come in, and told the director that we could start. All of the students did a very good job and everyone enjoyed their performances.
Final Reflection