With remote and blended learning we have all faced the difficulty of successfully bringing practical work into the virtual classroom. Many teachers in schools, colleges and dance clubs across the country have tried to keep up their students’ fitness levels by teaching technique classes on Zoom and Teams. All endeavours have been commendable but we know that there are inequalities in a system of remote learning where each teacher or student has access to different types of space and classes. In fact, some have no dance space at all. And what of risk at home? Not only is this happening during lockdowns and isolations but also during normal teaching in schools where dance is certainly not top of the agenda.
Inequalities in dance education
The numbers taking Dance GCSE and then Dance A Level have been dropping in most institutions. The current curriculum does not allow for students to take many options in year 10 and there is no compulsion to take dance after Key Stage 3. In many cases, a student who is a devoted dancer will carry on with their lessons outside of school. This is wonderful but with this path comes a financial burden. And therein lies one of the biggest inequalities: many students’ families simply cannot afford the fees for classes, travel and examinations.
Dance might be taught by a P.E. teacher if there is no dance specialist available. The teacher does not always feel comfortable delivering dance classes and choreographic workshops as they do not have the same experience as a dance specialist. Many teachers are willing to learn about the delivery of the dance content but have been heavily relying on YouTube for guidance. Some of the large dance schools and companies have put up very useful videos of exercises and classes but nothing beats having a real live dance expert in the dance studio at school. There might be a solution to these problems in the form of 5G EDGE XR.
A solution
Since 2016 DanceEast have been working hard to try and find a solution to a national problem in our schools. High quality dance education seemed to be either greatly reduced on the curriculum or in some cases, disappearing. In order to combat this dire situation, DanceEast have been developing a blended learning approach. It involves a dance artist and a classroom teacher but in a totally new way.
The project started with an Explore & Test grant from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and involves a team of experts working with dance artists and technology to deliver an online teaching model. In 2022, helped by a second grant from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, the programme will be available to 28 schools to whom regular sessions will be delivered over a 3-year period.
Specialist facilities
Thanks to grants from New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership and Jerwood Foundation, DanceEast was able to fit a tech suite into one of their dance studios. It has dance specific green screen filming facilities; Black Magic cameras and broadcast quality lighting and editing equipment. BT is based near Ipswich and much of the research takes place at Adastral Park in Martlesham. The tech company is working in collaboration with TheGridFactory, Condense Reality, Bristol University and Salsa Sound on potential uses of 5G.
BT's headquarters near Ipswich have an innovation hub and they invited DanceEast to be a partner in a bid to a DCMS (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) fund to investigate potential uses for 5G connectivity. Consequently, DanceEast is now a partner in the 5G EDGE XR project which has many exciting possibilities. One example is volumetric capture, where an image is captured in 3D and reproduced as a photo realistic hologram, viewed through augmented reality glasses.
The project's scope
The potential of this technology is impressive. The students see a dance specialist in the studio in the form of a 3D hologram, and their classroom teacher is also there leading the lesson. This technology has worked beautifully to teach science using dance in a primary school. The lesson was based on space and the planets, and the children wore the glasses and moved around in the studio reacting to what they saw. I witnessed a lesson using this technology and the children were clearly having lots of fun and letting their imaginations run wild.
Speaking to Lucy Bayliss, head of Creative Programmes at DanceEast, I could see the logic of this project. The student wearing the glasses can control certain aspects of the experience, such as rewind and pause. They could see planets, constellations and even lava. One of the reasons that Bayliss is passionate about the project is because volumetric video captures the excitement and energy of a live experience. I cannot wait to try it.