Four student choreographers standing together and smiling at the camera

Ursula Moreton Emerging Choreographer 2021

Last week four of our Pre-professional Year showcased their own choreography in our annual Ursula Moreton Emerging Choreographer performance.

Normally, our 2nd Year students choreograph pieces in workshops with our Choreographic Course Coordinator & Tutor, Mikaela Polley and perform them to an audience of family, friends and supporters. Due to COVID-19, they missed this opportunity last year however the performance was rescheduled and shown in front of a small audience.

The Ursula Moreton Emerging Choreographer programme, generously supported by Peter Wilson, was created in 1973 to encourage choreographic talent.

The programme is invaluable to our students because they are able to experience working as a professional choreographer, encompassing all the elements that make a production successful including; staging, props, lighting and costumes.

Our student choreographers this year were Aidan Buss, Jack Easton, Arnon Herring and Jessica Templeton. We spoke to the students about their choreographic process.Here they discuss the choreography process:

Aidan Buss

For me, I’ve always found that what starts the choreographic process is the music and when I hear music that I just really feel like ‘oh this would be really nice to move to and just has so many unique aspects.’ That’s really what fuels the movement so that has followed me from White Lodge to Upper School, it’s always the music that starts the process for me.

Jack Easton

Working with ballet dancers and trying to give them my natural movement quality and seeing how they process it has been interesting because I have to really push them to find different ways of moving, break the classical balletic line that they’re so used to having.

Arnon Herring

My main inspirations for my choreography were a number of unforgettable situations that happened during the last year, for example the BLM movement and the death of Sarah Everard, and how we as a society behave towards women, how we expect women to look like and how do we expect men to behave? I try to put a mirror on stage to create a reflection so the audience can really see what we do wrong. I believe that every change can come from understanding what we can do better and only then we can make things different.

Jessica Templeton

The inspiration for my piece was most definitely the dancers that are in it. I think being constantly surrounded by such massive personalities and fierce individualism in everyone in my class and in my year group, I was really inspired by that so my piece then encompassed that idea of individuality, breaking out a set of rules or a set of circumstances and being your own person, forging your own path. I think it’s been really nice to see my own movement on other bodies and see, and challenge myself, challenge myself to see if I can choreograph on a group and if it’s something I want to pursue future.