Dancing in The Corso
Interview by Kathy Hunter

There’s a feast of dance on this weekend in Manly, and it’s all free! On both Saturday and Sunday, around lunchtime, you’ll be able to watch some of our best local dancers in the Corso.

Saturday sees the JS Dance Company take the stage at 12noon and 1pm. JS have enjoyed a long and lively association with the Manly Arts Festival – they’ve been performing with us for the past eight years.

The Company, led by Principal Jane Stanley, has been a Northern Beaches fixture for a decade and a half at Brookvale, teaching ballet, jazz, tap, hip hop and contemporary dance to young dance fanatics. Jane, who studied at the Royal Academy of Dance in London, says of the Festival “We train, nurture and inspire our young students to enjoy the wonderful creativity dance offers. In the Corso this year, we’ll be encouraging the audience to participate after our performance, in a free dance class showing them how easy it is to learn the lastest hip hop dance moves!”

This year JS Dance Company will feature their Boys only class, which is good news for parents of boys who have a love of dance, as often it’s hard for boys to break into what’s often seen as ‘girls only’ territory.

On Sunday we have another dance treat – the Pulse8 team, currently resident at the Stella Maris Campus, will be strutting their high-energy stuff in the Corso at 11.45am and 12.30pm. Kay Armstrong, Artistic Director, has hand-picked a group of 17 to 25-year-olds which represents the cream of the crop from post-secondary and tertiary education dance programmes. Kay also has an impeccable pedigree as a choreographer, dancer and mentor to over 40 young dancers.

These dancers have a big future ahead of them, according to Kay. “These are committed people whose lives have been leading them to a career in dance since they were 4 or 5 years old,” says Kay. “Through their time with me they’ve had access to leading choreographers which has really extended them and shown them what they can do with high-quality raw materials.”

The work Pulse8 will be performing has been designed especially for the Manly Arts Festival and is described by Kay as a “wild 1980s piece, with crazed bridesmaids – it’s very colourful with retro, puff-sleeved dresses made of moiré taffeta that’s very rustly – and we use the sound of the dresses in the dance.”

Sound intriguing? Then grab your budding dancers and head down the Corso this weekend for some serious inspiration!