Journey in New Zealand: Part 2
I-Develop Dance Camp (January 2023)
Going back to NZ for dance, I understood very well a majority of my training experience will be from the dance camps, or from a program one of the major companies will host. It’s important to note that the training I’m seeking is mainly from the teachers within the choreography community. Drawing from my personal previous experience; To gain the most from Auckland’s choreography community, I would have to be in one of their teams. And because I can’t commit to that, I’m left to rely on the major training events they’d be hosting. Going into this trip, there were only 2 opportunities that were guaranteed for me. They are from Identity Dance Company (IDCO) and the Royal Family Dance Crew (RF):
- IDCO’s I-Develop Dance Camp in January
- Royal Family’s Polyswagg intensive in January
For the rest of the trip, I could only hope more opportunities would pop up. I was also planning on taking each company’s weekly drop-in classes.
I-Develop was the first of these opportunities. I was nervous as usual because this was my first time being in the community after six long years. I remember walking into the venue during registration and seeing hundreds of dancers waiting around (I'm guessing there were around 200+).
The camp was in 3 days:
- Day 1, 9 am to 5:15 pm - 4 classes
- Day 2, 9 am to 7:45 pm - 5 classes
- Day 3, 9 am to 8:45 pm - 5 classes
looking at the camp’s timetable, I remember each day of the camp didn’t end as scheduled. So each day we were training for about 8 to 10 hours (hours not including the time we had for lunch and small breaks).
In preparing for this kind of training, I would purposefully take many classes in a row (back in Vancouver leading up to my trip). My goal was to condition my mind, body and soul to be able to do a long day of training such as a dance camp. In 2016 I did a camp called BuildaBEAST in LA. It was the same dance camp format except it was 800+ dancers at a convention centre and it was for six days. Though that was seven years ago, a lot of what I learned from that experience I took with me to be prepared for long days of training.
My latest training from Vancouver was helpful for sure, but nothing could’ve prepared me for an experience like I-Develop. Everything I did in Vancouver was just so different from the camp: The movement, the way the dancers in NZ interpret the music, and the large camp setting. On top of that, there’s nothing easy about taking four or five classes in a single day. Nonetheless, there was a collective understanding amongst each dancer that we are there to upskill and to push ourselves. Being in that room and seeing everyone push through inspired me to keep pushing as well.
Overall, the highlight of my experience at I-Develop was being able to witness the movement that makes NZ so unique. And adding on to that, what each instructor taught outside of going over movement was even more amazing. Each of them had so much knowledge to share and many of them made it clear that it will take more than a single day to digest.
I walked out of that training super grateful and ready to rest and reflect. However; all that had to wait, as the Royal Family’s Polyswagg Intensives were starting the very next morning.
