France was a blast!

Bonjour! So we are back from France safe and sound and Flight Effect Company have had a blast!
Throughout the week the Flight Effect dancers have spent time together, we have grown a bigger bond as a company and feel stronger than ever.
This week consisted of various trips within tours with our choreographer Dimitri where he gave us a tour around the place and took us to see a conservatoire where we observed young dancers practice in rehearsals. We have also had a trip to the national contemporary conservatoire in which Dimitri has worked for 14 years before and we learnt a little bit about the company and what they do, followed by another observation of the dancer’s rehearsal which gave us all chance to see the details of how a professional dance company rehearses and works.

Wednesday night was our performance of ‘Moon Eaters’ at the theatre called ‘La Pleiade’. We were part of the show alongside another performance, also a piece choreographed by Dimitri. This was called ‘Praxagora’ and was very inspiring to watch and thrilling to be a part of such a powerful environment. As a company, we felt the performance was the strongest we had ever performed and we felt very confident in the audience response. This was highlighted after the show when a member of the audience approached some on our dancers and complimented our technique and performance. The words we received were ‘you danced better than Beyoncé’ which you can understand, was exhilarating to hear! After the performance, we had chance to speak to other dancers and some audience members and exchange thoughts and opinions on the evening. Flight Effect agreed that we felt confident and appreciated after this performance and it was so refreshing to hear such positive comments on our piece.

Throughout the week, we had some spare time to spend as a company exploring tours and its beautiful surroundings. The week we spent out in France has been a rollercoaster of emotions and has proved both relaxing and exciting. France has been a crucial part of our Tour, as it has been performed where our Choreographer lives. It was very upsetting to say ‘au revoir’ to Dimitri as it will be the final time he will see his work performed live and the last time Flight Effect 2016 will work with him. Emotional as it was to say goodbye, it was a positive atmosphere as we felt we have done him proud with the successful performance.  

Currently, although we are back, does not mean we have stopped working! We are currently preparing to travel to Leeds later this afternoon to perform in Yorkshire Dance as part of the Friday Firsts event, Burst. This is a platform where young choreographers get the chance to showcase their work. We are very excited for this and still running off the excitement from France.

We hope you have enjoyed hearing about our experience this week and we have enjoyed every second of it!
Another blog to follow next week!
Merci, Helen and Steph J