Plymouth Marjon students showcase expertise at Dance Festival

Released: 24.05.24

This week, children from eight Plymouth primary schools came together for the Plymouth Schools Dance Festival, alongside one secondary school specially invited as dance role models. The festival was set up in 2021 by Hayley Tasker from the Plymouth School Sport Partnership and has gathered considerable momentum ever since.

The festival, which took place at the Plymouth Life Centre, is designed to develop pupils’ confidence through engaging with exciting dance opportunities. This year’s festival, themed ‘Our Wonderful Plymouth’, benefitted from a collaboration with Plymouth Marjon University’s BA (Hons) Physical Education with Dance students.

Hayley Tasker, leader of the Plymouth Schools Dance Festival, said:

“It’s been great to link with the programme at Plymouth Marjon to create a safe space and role models for the primary school pupils, and it’s created opportunities for the children to feel successful.”

Erica Eaton Quinn, Programme Leader for the BA (Hons) Physical Education with Dance degree at Marjon explained the structure and contents of the degree are designed to provide students with first-hand experiences that support their career aspirations. 

The Plymouth Schools Dance Festival provided a wonderful opportunity for Marjon third-year students to work with the school children to create dance choreography and costumes, and coordinate music and lighting. The students worked professionally with the schools and young people for more than 10 weeks to create a range of different dances that celebrated Britain’s Ocean City.

Third-year BA (Hons) Physical Education with Dance student Rosie added:

“This festival was an amazing experience for us as students and all the children around Plymouth that were involved. The day encouraged confidence and the community to come together and support each other.”

Other participating students from the degree at Plymouth Marjon University added that the festival was ‘an exciting experience with the opportunity to perform’ for the children and provided a ‘unique opportunity for pupils to learn and gain confidence in their movements’.

The Plymouth Life Centre enabled the festival to run and the children to share the performances they had been working on. The performance space with a sprung floor at the Life Centre was perfect for the event, with professional sound and lighting produced by Nathan Benjamin.

For many of the participating children, this was the first opportunity for them to experience performing in this setting to a full audience. Charlie Eaton from Inner Motion Movement also stepped in the support the young dancers on the day.