Katie Davies, one of Dance Consortium’s Autumn 2024 LIPA Placement students, reflects on her experiences while on tour for a week with The QDance Company and Dance Consortium in October ’24.
A week on tour
I had the great opportunity to join Dance Consortium and The QDance Company for a week as they toured their show “Re:INCARNATION”.
During those 7 days I got to experience the world of touring by working alongside incredible industry professionals from Front of House Staff, Technicians, Programmers and Company/Tour Managers, who all gave me an insight into how much work is done to make a performance like this happen. We worked in The Lowry in Salford as well as The New Hull Theatre, which I can only describe as a hub of art. Everyone I met was so welcoming, supportive and more than happy to answer any questions and show support for my career.
Pictured: LIPA Placement students Katie Davies and Lola Miles
This was my first professional placement in terms of dance and theatre, and my goal going in was to be open minded and take every opportunity to learn more about the industry. The Dance Consortium staff made this easily possible as they supported me in technical tasks like the ‘get in/get outs’ where I had no experience in light or sound technology, but I walked away by the end of the week with more than a basic understanding of it all. As an aspiring manager it’s really important to me that I can understand the roles of everyone in my team, therefore working alongside and building that relationship with technical staff had so much value to me. Similarly, working along side Chief Executive Joe Bates and Senior Producer Claire Morton, the Dance Consortium tour managers and Victor, the QDance Company’s tour manager, was really useful as every day on the job for them is different, and seeing how they adapt to that is inspiring.
For example, every show date in this tour included a workshop, where two of the professional dancers teach some of their choreography to a group of children form a local school. By shadowing Claire, I helped host this workshop where the children learn the culture of these Nigerian dancers in a friendly, safe environment. This was important to me as I believe that experiences like this for young children are crucial for their growth and creativity, especially when they come from a low income area; they wouldn’t have gotten this opportunity without Dance Consortium, so I was super happy to be a part of that.
(Left) Local School Workshop / (Right) The QDance Company performing "Re:INCARNATION"
Another example was a meeting in The New Hull Theatre with their Marketing manager and Head of Programming. They spoke to us about how they are currently finding it really difficult to attract audiences and sell tickets, a common consequence theatres are suffering since Covid-19. The staff expressed how disappointing it is to see but they explained the plans they had to solve that problem and they were eager to learn more about their local audiences and change the way in which they advertise. For me, seeing how determined they were to better their venue was inspiring and it proves how many people and how much work is put into keeping these venues running and putting on different styles of shows. They showed attributes that I will definitely carry with me throughout my career.
My favourite moment from the week was looking around at breakfast on the last morning and realising that when you’re on tour you build a family of your own. With this company the dancers were so close with the company and friendships had been built. I think its beautiful that you can work alongside people that make it hard to say goodbye when the tour finishes. I was lucky that my first professional experience in this industry was so warm and welcoming, as in the creative industry sometimes those environments are hard to find.
So thank you to all of the Dance Consortium staff and the QDance Company for proving that.
Pictured (left to right): Lola Miles, Wisdom Henry Bethel, Katie Davies and Victor Lawani
Pictured: Our 2024 LIPA Placement students (from left to right) Lola Miles, Julia Lewanczyk, Erin O'Connell and Katie Davies
