Placement Student Stories

Laura Mercer, class of 2011 - placement year at Ludus Dance in Lancaster

"Just wanted to let you know that my main placement project, the Preston Boys Hip Hop group that I have created, promoted and completely set up through Ludus Dance have been accepted into the Lancashire Youth Dance Festival. The Preston Boys Hip Hop Group is a group of aged 17+ boys, some having special needs, and I have spent time teaching and dancing street dance and hip hop with them. I am really pleased that this group has grown and progressed in the way that it has to the extent that now, they will be performing at a county festival at the Dukes Theatre in Lancaster on May 23rd. I am very excited about this opportunity and again want to emphasize how fantastic a placement at Ludus Dance is."

Bonnie Jerrard, class of 2009 - placement year at East London Dance

“I would to take this opportunity to thank the University of Surrey for my professional training placement with East London Dance, for which I gained invaluable knowledge and experience and has enabled me to secure this position. I was lucky enough to be invited back to work for East London Dance after my graduation and will remain there until I start my new position at The Royal Opera House”.

“These photos are from the Olympic Torch Relay project I did. East London Dance was commissioned to produce a site-specific dance piece on top of Stratford Library roof as part of the celebrations for the Olympic Torch travelling through Stratford on 6th April 2008. I was one of 8 performers at this event (the one in Blue!)”.

photo: John Szymanski

photo: Martina Trottman

photo: Andrea Mothersill

Stephanie Durnford, class of 2010 - Placement year in Australian Dance Council, Ausdance

I undertook my placement year in Melbourne, Australia with the Australian Dance Council, Ausdance, where I spent 30 weeks working with them as a full time member of staff/intern. Those 30 weeks gave me unmeasurable experiences of working in the business of the dancing world. Aside from my main role of admin assistant, I was given tasks and projects in other areas such as Education and Training, Project Management and Events Organisation. My personal placement project took me to schools around the state of Victoria where I prepared and taught classes of culturally diverse dance styles to students in years 9 – 12. Settling in was, as expected, not easy but with the support of my colleagues, friends and family, and university tutors I soon established a solid base and spent a very enjoyable year experiencing the social and cultural sides of Australia as well as the professional side. My favourite part of the placement was at the very end as Ausdance asked me to stay on for a few more weeks after my placement in order to complete a project that I was co-organising: The Australian Dance Awards 2009 Public Program. This was an performance with an amalgamation of dance schools, full time dance schools and semi-professional dance organisations in Victoria. It was a very successful day, enormous fun to be a part of and an invaluable experience for me as events management is something that I would like to pursue as a career. Overall, my time in Australia and with Ausdance was fantastic and I would urge any other student (who isn’t afraid of long plane journeys!) to do the same.

in the picture: The Ausdance Staff and I (fourth from the right) after the Public Program at the Australian Dance Awards 2009